On Monday, Ascendis Pharma cleared a noteworthy performance benchmark, seeing its Relative Strength (RS) Rating jump into the 80-plus percentile with an improvement to 83, up from 80 the day before.

When looking for the best stocks to buy and watch, one factor to watch closely is relative price strength.

This proprietary rating tracks technical performance by showing how a stock's price action over the last 52 weeks measures up against that of other stocks on the major indexes.

Over 100 years of market history shows that the stocks that go on to make the biggest gains often have an RS Rating north of 80 in the early stages of their moves.

See How IBD Helps You Make More Money In Stocks

Ascendis Pharma is working on a cup with handle with a 178.81 buy point. See if it can clear the breakout price in heavy trade.

While earnings-per-share growth fell in the company's most recent performance report from 0% to -33%, sales grew -25%, up from -64% in the prior report.

The company earns the No. 84 rank among its peers in the Medical-Biomed/Biotech industry group. Alkermes and Innoviva are also among the group's highest-rated stocks.