The Business Services group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Gen Digital (GEN) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Gen Digital is one of 259 individual stocks in the Business Services sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #3 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.
The Zacks Rank is a proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Gen Digital is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GEN's full-year earnings has moved 3.6% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Based on the latest available data, GEN has gained about 10.6% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Business Services sector has returned an average of 2.1% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Gen Digital is outperforming its peers so far this year.
Another stock in the Business Services sector, Coursera (COUR), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 2.8%.
For Coursera, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 13.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Looking more specifically, Gen Digital belongs to the Technology Services industry, a group that includes 122 individual stocks and currently sits at #71 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 13.2% so far this year, so GEN is slightly underperforming its industry in this area. Coursera is also part of the same industry.
Going forward, investors interested in Business Services stocks should continue to pay close attention to Gen Digital and Coursera as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Gen Digital Inc. (GEN): Free Stock Analysis Report Coursera, Inc. (COUR): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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