4 Hot Stocks To Keep An Eye Out For In Medical Services
“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” – Warren Buffett
Indeed, uncertainty is not new to the world of investing. A regular investor knows that nothing pays off better than adequate, up-to-date knowledge of the current market and one’s current portfolio. And reevaluating one’s portfolio, from time to time, is even more important if one does not want to miss out on the golden chance.
With market conditions relatively stable now, the stock market is on an upswing, as is evident from the drift observed in the major indices during Monday’s trading session. Evidently, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21.57 points on Monday, while the S&P 500 edged up 2.02. Nasdaq Composite gained 13.23 on the day.
Moreover, the recent oil price rise has stabilized commodity prices over the past few weeks. Improved U.S. economic data also stand in favor of the stock market, raising hopes of a decent run.
Given this optimistic backdrop, we would advice investors to make the most of this opportunity and invest in industries that look promising at present. And what can be a better indicator than our proprietary Zacks Industry Rank, which helps detect the most profitable industries at the moment.
Of the top 132 Zacks Ranked industries, we have handpicked the medical services industry which, apart from boasting a favorable Zacks Industry rank, contains stocks that sport strong inherent fundamentals.
Delving Deeper
Currently, the Medical Services industry has a Zacks Industry Rank of #40 out of 265 (as a guideline, the outlook for industries with Zacks Industry Rank #88 and lower is 'Positive’; learn more about Zacks Industry Rank here). Thus, Medical Services belongs to the top 15% of the Zacks Rank Industries.
In recent times, focus on accountability, quality outcomes and affordability has driven structural changes in the overall health care industry. According to a report published by Wipro, two factors critical for delivering cost-effective and high-quality care are – a robust medical services and products delivery system and a sustainable reimbursement model to cover the costs of care.
With population on the rise and lives becoming busier, the availability of convenient, personalized healthcare facilities is the need of the hour. Moreover, a gradual transformation from providing volume to value-based-care model is underway, which is expected to bring in a revolutionary change in the healthcare service system. Given this scenario, providing seamless and fast medical services to customers has become the utmost priority for medical service providers.
In the wake of the transformation that the medical service industry is currently undergoing, investment opportunities for its players are galore in the current market condition.
Stocks to Pick
From among the wide gamut of stocks in the Medical Services space, we hereby select four top-performing stocks for you, that carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) and have witnessed a positive price change in the past 4 weeks.
PRA Health Sciences, Inc. (PRAH - Snapshot Report):North Carolina-based PRA Health Sciences is a contract research organization (CRO), which provides outsourced clinical development services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries worldwide.
- Zacks Rank #1
- Price Gain: 3.3%
ICON Public Limited Company (ICLR - Snapshot Report): Ireland-based ICON Public is a CRO that provides outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices industries.
- Zacks Rank #2
- Price Gain: 3.81%
Cancer Genetics, Inc. (CGIX - Snapshot Report): New Jersey-based Cancer Genetics is an oncology diagnostics company that develops DNA-based tests and services to enhance and personalize the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of targeted cancers.
- Zacks Rank #2
- Price Gain: 28.57%
PAREXEL International Corporation (PRXL - Snapshot Report): Massachusetts-based PARAXEL is a biopharmaceutical services company that provides clinical research, clinical logistics, medical communications, consulting, commercialization, and advanced technology products and services for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries worldwide.
- Zacks Rank #2
- Price Gain: 1.27%
The Bottom Line
The future of the medical services industry, in the context of extensive population explosion and rising emerging market living standards, is bright. Naturally, its prospects are high in the investment space. So look out for the aforementioned stocks that are likely to make a big bang in the medical services space, going ahead.
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