Jerome Powell, Chair, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve speaks during a conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on June 4, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. Scott Olson | Getty Images

Many investors believe the Federal Reserve is set to start cutting interest rates, possibly as early as this week. And history shows one group of stocks stands out after the Fed begins cutting. Health-care stocks outperform the market by about 7% in the nine months after a rate reduction, data compiled by Barclays shows. And what makes the group special relative to other groups is its consistency of performance following eases. The firm ran deep analysis of Fed rate cut cycles and found that overall market performance and performance of most sectors varies depending on why the central bank is lowering rates. Barclays determined there were two types of rate-cutting environments: an economic "soft patch" and a recession. Health care was the only sector that thrived in both of those rate-cutting scenarios.

A doctor examines a patient. Getty Images

This is "an intuitive result given that soft patches still represent a weak economic environment," said Maneesh Deshpande, head of U.S. equity strategy at Barclays, in a note last week. Health-care stocks have consistent revenues and also pay out relatively bigger dividends, making the stocks are attractive when rates fall in uneasy economic environments. The Fed begins a two-day meeting Tuesday. Most economists don't expect a cut Wednesday, but believe the central bank will signal that monetary easing is likely on the way later this year. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to a new 20-month low on Tuesday in anticipation of rate cuts. Meanwhile, health-care names have started to turn around after some struggles earlier in the year. Shares of UnitedHealth, Pfizer and Merck are all higher in the last month.

Rate cut losers