Health-Care Earnings Top S&P 500 on Strong Drug, Hospital Demand

The largest American public health-care companies outperformed other industries in the third quarter, as higher new and specialty drug use, continued demand for weight-loss drugs and strong hospital visit trends boosted earnings.

Among the 11 industry categories on the S&P 500, health-care companies delivered the highest percentage of earnings beats in the period. It was also the best-performing quarter in more than four years for the industry.

Demand for specialty drugs such as cancer treatments drove strong results for pharmaceutical distributors such as McKesson Corp., Cencora Inc., and Cardinal Health Inc., UBS health-care senior analyst Kevin ...