For those looking to find strong Consumer Staples stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Carriage Services (CSV) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Consumer Staples sector should help us answer this question.
Carriage Services is a member of our Consumer Staples group, which includes 178 different companies and currently sits at #12 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.
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. Carriage Services is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CSV's full-year earnings has moved 3.3% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Our latest available data shows that CSV has returned about 21.2% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Consumer Staples stocks have gained an average of 5.1%. This shows that Carriage Services is outperforming its peers so far this year.
Another Consumer Staples stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is L'Oreal SA (LRLCY). The stock has returned 26% year-to-date.
In L'Oreal SA's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 1.9% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, Carriage Services belongs to the Funeral Services industry, which includes 3 individual stocks and currently sits at #36 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 1% so far this year, so CSV is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
In contrast, L'Oreal SA falls under the Consumer Products - Staples industry. Currently, this industry has 35 stocks and is ranked #189. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -3.7%.
Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to Carriage Services and L'Oreal SA as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Carriage Services, Inc. (CSV): Free Stock Analysis Report L'Oreal SA (LRLCY): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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