Healthcare enters 2026 with a mixed setup. Large-cap pharma and managed care provide cash flow stability, while biotech depends on funding conditions, catalysts, and M&A appetite.
Driven by GLP-1 growth leaders like Eli Lilly, healthcare trades at a 19x Forward P/E. This dashboard tracks valuation trends, equal-weight performance, and sector component data across all 900+ pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device stocks.
Sector Market Cap
$6.25T
Tracks 1129 stocks · top 50 by market cap
Median YTD Return
+11.3%
Screener universe · median stock return
Median P/E
29.8x
Screener stocks · excludes outliers
Median Dividend Yield
2.27%
Screener stocks · excludes zeros
Sector Screener
Scan the sector leaders, compare valuations and fundamentals, then open the full screener to refine your criteria.
| Ticker | Company | Price | Mkt Cap | P/E | ROE | Div Yield | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eli Lilly and Company | $1143.12 | $1.08T | 49.8 | 101.2% | 0.5% | ||
| Johnson & Johnson | $252.93 | $608.86B | 22.9 | 35% | 2% | ||
| AbbVie Inc. | $265.76 | $469.54B | 112.1 | 6214.7% | 2.5% | ||
| Merck & Co., Inc. | $139.54 | $344.64B | 19.2 | 36.9% | 2.3% | ||
| UnitedHealth Group Incorporated | $378.58 | $343.81B | 28.6 | 11.8% | 2.3% | ||
| Novartis AG | $140.93 | $267.87B | 19.6 | 31% | 2.9% | ||
| Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. | $676.76 | $251.5B | 38.1 | 13.1% | 0.2% | ||
| Amgen Inc. | $402.98 | $217.49B | 28.3 | 106.1% | 2.3% | ||
| Gilead Sciences, Inc. | $144.63 | $179.57B | 21.3 | 40.7% | 2.2% | ||
| Abbott Laboratories | $100.10 | $174.36B | 26.9 | 13% | 2.4% | ||
| Novo Nordisk A/S | $37.54 | $166.7B | 10.9 | 60.7% | 4.7% | ||
| Pfizer Inc. | $27.41 | $156.22B | 20.2 | 8.9% | 6.3% | ||
| Danaher Corporation | $221.21 | $155.51B | 43.9 | 7.1% | 0.6% | ||
| Intuitive Surgical, Inc. | $406.48 | $143.6B | 51.6 | 16.6% | — | ||
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | $503.50 | $127.79B | 32.9 | 22.5% | — | ||
| AstraZeneca PLC | $156.53 | $121.31B | 12.0 | 22.9% | 4.1% | ||
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company | $58.81 | $120.09B | 17.0 | 40.4% | 4.2% | ||
| Medtronic plc | $87.97 | $112.94B | 23.6 | 9.8% | 3.2% | ||
| CVS Health Corp. | $87.01 | $111.02B | 62.6 | 2.3% | 3.1% | ||
| Stryker Corporation | $285.22 | $109.34B | 34.0 | 15.1% | 1.2% | ||
| McKesson Corporation | $915.45 | $109.12B | 23.9 | — | 0.3% | ||
| Sanofi | $39.51 | $94.87B | 11.0 | 10.4% | 6.3% | ||
| HCA Healthcare, Inc. | $434.92 | $94.16B | 15.3 | — | 0.7% | ||
| GSK plc | $46.55 | $93.26B | 12.7 | 39.4% | 3.5% | ||
| Elevance Health Inc. | $394.51 | $85.56B | 15.7 | 13.3% | 1.7% | ||
| Moderna, Inc. | $203.21 | $80.63B | -28.0 | -28.9% | — | ||
| Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | $726.94 | $74.89B | 17.5 | 14.9% | 0.5% | ||
| Cigna Corporation | $271.29 | $71.76B | 12.2 | 14.3% | 2.2% | ||
| Boston Scientific Corporation | $42.40 | $63.02B | 21.9 | 12.4% | — | ||
| Cencora, Inc. | $314.93 | $61.27B | 39.6 | 122.7% | 0.7% |
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CORSector Outlook
Healthcare enters 2026 with a mixed setup. Large-cap pharma and managed care provide cash flow stability, while biotech depends on funding conditions, catalysts, and M&A appetite.
Procedure volumes, GLP-1 demand shifts, and hospital labor normalization are key drivers for providers and devices. Watch drug pricing policy and patent replacement pipelines for large incumbents.
The best opportunities usually come from segment selection, not broad sector timing. Quality compounders and speculative clinical-stage names coexist, so discipline on valuation matters.
Learn
Healthcare under GICS groups companies tied to medicine, patient care, diagnostics, life sciences, or health insurance — from large pharma and biotech to hospital systems, device makers, and health tech vendors.
Drug makers and insurers are valued on cash flow and pricing power. Biotech and devices are more about pipeline quality and product adoption. XLV gives a large-cap snapshot, but the full sector has a wider range of business models.
XLV offers broad exposure to established healthcare leaders. Stock selection is more useful for targeted pharma, managed care, device, or biotech exposure.
Key risks: regulation, reimbursement changes, patent cliffs, trial failures, and utilization shifts. In defensive phases, investors favor insurers and large-cap pharma. In risk-on phases, biotech pipelines and high-growth medtech get attention.
Use the screener to separate recurring cash flow businesses from binary-event stories. Margin stability, balance sheet strength, and valuation work best when compared within the right sub-group.
Explore Further
Healthcare includes pharma, biotech, insurers, hospitals, device makers, diagnostics, and life sciences tools. The screener above shows the sector list with sortable data.
Explore More
Dive into other sector analyses with performance tracking, valuation metrics, and industry breakdowns.
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Use our powerful screener to filter Healthcare stocks by market cap, valuation, profitability, and dozens of other fundamental metrics.
Valuation, growth, profitability, technicals
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Track the XLV sector ETF performance vs S&P 500. The basket shows equal-weight returns of top 50 stocks by market cap.
Momentum Leaders
Momentum Underperformers
Market Comparison
Against the S&P 500, Healthcare currently trades at 30.4x trailing earnings versus 34.5x for the broad market. This discount reflects the sector's lower profitability metrics compared to the broader index.
Valuation
12% below S&P 500 trailing P/E
| Metric | Healthcare | S&P 500 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trailing P/E | 30.4x | 34.5x | Sector cheaper |
| Forward P/E | 20.8x | 22.9x | Sector cheaper |
| EV/EBITDA | 17.6x | 23.4x | Sector cheaper |
76th percentile; range 25.5x to 31.9x
89th percentile; range 18.1x to 31.9x
Quality
Net margin 13.9% vs 28.6%; ROE 33.1% vs 49.3%
| Metric | Healthcare | S&P 500 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Margin | 13.9% | 28.6% | S&P 500 stronger |
| ROE | 33.1% | 49.3% | S&P 500 stronger |
Income
Sector yield 1.50% vs 0.97%
| Metric | Healthcare | S&P 500 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dividend Yield | 1.5% | 1.0% | Sector yields more |
These cards are built from the full sector universe, then ranked by market cap so you can see which pockets are leading, rich, resilient, or dangerously concentrated.
Industry Scoreboard
Use this table to spot heavyweights, cheap pockets, leaders, and genuinely beaten-down areas before opening the detailed cards below.
Large Pharma 21 stocks | 43.7% $3.96T | Leading +1.0% median 3M | Cheap 11.2x median Fwd P/E | High 21.7% median ROE | Weak 3.7% rev growth | Attractive Concentrated |
Biotechnology 647 stocks | 14.3% $1.29T | Lagging -14.9% median 3M | Fair 25.1x median Fwd P/E | Mixed -52.6% median ROE | Weak 2.3% rev growth | Broken Diversified |
Diagnostics & Research 53 stocks | 9.9% $897.05B | Leading +16.2% median 3M | Premium 29.4x median Fwd P/E | Mixed -7.6% median ROE | Weak 8.4% rev growth | Expensive Leader Concentrated |
Medical Devices 132 stocks | 8.2% $743.28B | Neutral -14.0% median 3M | Fair 20.7x median Fwd P/E | Mixed -17.4% median ROE | Average 8.6% rev growth | Mixed Diversified |
Health Insurance 12 stocks | 7.9% $715.15B | Leading -8.5% median 3M | Fair 18.0x median Fwd P/E | Mixed 9.0% median ROE | Weak 8.2% rev growth | Mixed One-name heavy |
Medical Instruments 56 stocks | 4.6% $419.19B | Leading +1.1% median 3M | Premium 21.2x median Fwd P/E | Mixed 1.2% median ROE | Average 7.8% rev growth | Expensive Leader Concentrated |
Specialty & Generic Pharma 77 stocks | 3.1% $281.83B | Neutral -4.4% median 3M | Fair 11.4x median Fwd P/E | Mixed -20.3% median ROE | Strong 6.3% rev growth | Watchlist Diversified |
Healthcare Facilities 48 stocks | 2.7% $247.63B | Leading -4.3% median 3M | Cheap 17.7x median Fwd P/E | Mixed 6.6% median ROE | Average 5.9% rev growth | Mixed Concentrated |
Medical Distribution 12 stocks | 2.6% $239.66B | Leading -2.3% median 3M | Fair 17.6x median Fwd P/E | Mixed 19.2% median ROE | Average 1.9% rev growth | Mixed One-name heavy |
Healthcare IT 51 stocks | 1.8% $167.26B | Leading +0.8% median 3M | Fair 21.3x median Fwd P/E | Mixed -6.7% median ROE | Strong 6.6% rev growth | Watchlist Concentrated |
Pharmaceuticals 12 stocks | 0.7% $65.38B | Neutral -8.8% median 3M | Fair 33.6x median Fwd P/E | Mixed -52.9% median ROE | Average 5.3% rev growth | Mixed One-name heavy |
Medical Equipment 7 stocks | 0.5% $41.39B | Leading +8.5% median 3M | Fair 16.8x median Fwd P/E | Mixed -11.1% median ROE | Strong 14.0% rev growth | Watchlist One-name heavy |
Medical Specialties 1 stocks | 0.0% $406M | Leading -8.4% median 3M | Fair - median Fwd P/E | Mixed -24.4% median ROE | Average - rev growth | Mixed One-name heavy |
Showing 13 of 13 industries in Healthcare.
Setup is a quick read of value, quality, growth, momentum, and concentration together.
Earnings Calendar
Earnings reports are the biggest near-term catalysts for sector moves. Track which names report in the next 60 days and size your positions accordingly.