Are Medical Stocks Lagging Abbott Laboratories (ABT) This Year?

Group 1 - Abbott (ABT) is a notable stock in the Medical sector, currently outperforming the sector with a year-to-date return of approximately 0.3%, while the average Medical stocks have lost 4.8% [4] - Abbott holds a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy), indicating a positive earnings outlook, with the consensus estimate for full-year earnings having increased by 0.2% over the past 90 days [3] - The Medical sector consists of 1011 companies and Abbott is part of the Medical - Products industry, which includes 82 companies and is currently ranked 87 in the Zacks Industry Rank [2][5] Group 2 - Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACXP) has also outperformed the Medical sector with a year-to-date return of 3.2% and holds a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy) [4][5] - The consensus EPS estimate for Acurx has increased by 8% over the past three months, indicating positive analyst sentiment [5] - The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, to which Acurx belongs, has seen a decline of 13.1% this year, ranking 66 among 513 stocks [6]