Meet The "Magnificent Seven" of Healthcare Stocks

The original "Magnificent Seven" is a group of tech stocks that have generally delivered market-beating returns in the past decade. Creating a similarly prominent group in another sector like healthcare isn't an exact science. So, some might not agree with the list below. That said, though, all seven healthcare stocks in my "Magnificent Seven" of the industry share the following characteristics. First, they are all leaders in their respective niches.

Second, they have soundly outperformed the market over the past decade. Third, they all have solid long-term prospects. With that said, here is my Magnificent Seven of healthcare stocks: Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX), AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG), HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA), and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH).