Investors interested in Aerospace stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Huntington Ingalls (HII) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Aerospace sector should help us answer this question.
Huntington Ingalls is a member of our Aerospace group, which includes 58 different companies and currently sits at #7 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. Huntington Ingalls is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for HII's full-year earnings has moved 4.1% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
According to our latest data, HII has moved about 40.5% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, stocks in the Aerospace group have gained about 26.9% on average. This means that Huntington Ingalls is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
Another stock in the Aerospace sector, Safran SA (SAFRY), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 53.5%.
The consensus estimate for Safran SA's current year EPS has increased 6.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, Huntington Ingalls belongs to the Aerospace - Defense industry, a group that includes 24 individual stocks and currently sits at #96 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 27.5% this year, meaning that HII is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Safran SA is also part of the same industry.
Huntington Ingalls and Safran SA could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Aerospace stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.
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Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (HII): Free Stock Analysis Report Safran SA (SAFRY): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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