In this article, we will look at the 10 Best Performing Healthcare Stocks So Far in 2025.

The Healthcare Sector and its Dynamics in the Stock Market

Despite the ongoing craze surrounding the GLP-1 obesity drugs, the healthcare sector was a lagger last year. On January 3, Jared Holz, Mizuho Securities America’s healthcare sector strategist, appeared on CNBC’s ‘Squawk on the Street’ to talk about the healthcare sector’s outlook in 2025. While he anticipates another year of underperformance for the sector, he also believes that healthcare has “been so bad, maybe it’s gonna be good” in 2025.

Holz further said that the healthcare sector presents a calamity since there aren’t a lot of easy spaces in the domain. Other industry verticals, such as technology and financials, are well set up. Healthcare, in contrast, appears to have several variables in place, and most of them are not positive. However, he believed that the MedTech sector provides a sort of safety net in such a tumultuous sector. We talked about the medical device sector and the future of the healthcare industry in the US in a recently published article on 10 Best Medical Device Stocks To Buy According to Hedge Funds. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“According to McKinsey, the healthcare industry is expected to continually undergo a shift in growth dynamics. Health services and technology (HST) revenue pools are anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8% between 2023 and 2028, supported by double-digit growth in software platforms and advanced data and analytics. The sales of innovative technologies such as generative AI to payers and providers are further supporting this growth.

In addition, pharmacy services, especially those focused on specialty pharmacy, are expected to see continued growth. The launch of new therapies and increased utilization are expected to be the primary drivers of this growth. McKinsey estimates specialty pharmacy revenue will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8% between 2023 and 2028, growing EBITDA for managed service providers and specialty pharmacies.

Therefore, optimistic trends are materializing for the healthcare industry as a whole, including the medical device sector”.

AI and its Use in Healthcare: Is It All a Hoax?

Talking about the recent trends involving the increasing use of AI in the healthcare sector, Holz said that the scenario is possibly helping the software and technology companies more than healthcare ones. AI and its impact on drug development in clinical trials is another significant subject of discussion in the healthcare sector. However, Holz said that the industry is not really seeing the positive impact of the adoption of AI in the sector. Several clinical trials employing AI have failed in the recent past.

So, even though it seems that the science and technology behind the scenes is getting better, it hasn’t necessarily translated to better drug development and higher approval rates. Although he expects that the use of AI may lead to better results in the future, Holz believes that it is too early to make generalizations that the AI craze will lead to better results for biotech or pharma, at least in the near term.

With these trends in view, let’s look at the 10 best performing healthcare stocks so far in 2025.

Our Methodology

We used Finviz to screen healthcare stocks and looked at their year-to-date (YTD) performance, as of February 17, 2025, to select the best performing stocks. We also included the number of hedge fund holders for each stock as of Q3 2024. We sourced the hedge fund sentiment data from Insider Monkey’s database. The list is sorted in ascending order of year-to-date performance.

Why do we care about what hedge funds do? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

10 Best Performing Healthcare Stocks So Far in 2025

10. Doximity, Inc. (NYSE:DOCS)

YTD Performance: 45.96%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 19

Doximity, Inc. (NYSE:DOCS) develops and operates an online platform for medical professionals. Its cloud-based software allows physicians and healthcare professionals to collaborate with their colleagues, conduct virtual patient visits, coordinate patient care, manage their careers, and stay on top of the latest medical news. It offers Hiring, Marketing, and Productivity Solutions to health systems, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical recruiting firms, and other healthcare companies. Its Productivity Solutions segment comprises on-call scheduling, telehealth, and AI-assisted medical correspondence tools that help clinicians streamline their workflow.

The company reported impressive fiscal Q3 2025 results, resulting in soaring bullish sentiments for the company. Its net income for fiscal Q3 2024 grew 57% year-over-year to $75.2 million, while net profit for the first nine months rose by 50.2% year-over-year to $160.7 million. Revenue for fiscal Q3 2025 also grew by 24.6% year-over-year, reaching $168.6 million. Doximity, Inc. (NYSE:DOCS) expects this momentum to continue and anticipates revenue for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, to settle between $564.6 million and $565.6 million.

Doximity, Inc. (NYSE:DOCS) anticipates the pharma healthcare professionals (HCP) digital market to grow approximately 5% to 7%, and plans to grow ahead of the overall market. Its record engagement and strong competitive standing position it to attain this objective. It ranks tenth on our list of the 10 best performing healthcare stocks so far in 2025.

9. CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS)

YTD Performance: 46.65%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 63

CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is a health solutions company that operates in four segments: healthcare benefits, health services, pharmacy & consumer wellness, and corporate/other. Apart from being a prominent pharmacy chain, the company is one of the largest health insurers in the United States through its Aetna subsidiary’s operations.

While the company has uncertainty surrounding its future performance under a new CEO, its total revenue for fiscal Q4 2024 increased to $97.7 billion, reflecting a 4.2% growth compared to the prior year and bringing optimism to its operations. Although the company has delivered underwhelming results in the past, it is undergoing several recent management changes and initiatives that are expected to bring it back on track.

CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) has a diversified business, and its solid market presence across various segments gives it a competitive edge. In recent years, it has focused on primary care, expanding its portfolio through its Cordavis subsidiary, which markets and develops biosimilar drugs. Its median price target of $64.97 implies an upside of 12.36% from current levels. On February 18, Argus raised the company’s price target to $77 from $68 and kept a buy rating on the shares.

Patient Capital Management stated the following regarding CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) struggled throughout the year following a number of disappointments related to their Medicare Advantage business. While this had a negative impact on the near-term financials, the issues are well understood, and changes are already being made for the 2025 program. We see a clear pathway to improving margins throughout 2025 in all areas of the business. Furthermore, the company has upgraded their management team promoting David Joyner to CEO and hiring former UnitedHealth Group executive Steven Nelson to run the managed care business. On a longer-term basis, we continue to think CVS has an attractive combination of assets owning a healthcare benefits business (Aetna), a pharmacy-benefits manager (Caremark), an in-home evaluation business (Signify Health) and in-home primary care business (Oak Street Health) supporting the industry transition to a value-based care model. As the company works to implement the turnaround, the company has an attractive dividend yield of 5.8%.”