Investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Century Aluminum (CENX) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Industrial Products peers, we might be able to answer that question.
Century Aluminum is one of 189 companies in the Industrial Products group. The Industrial Products group currently sits at #2 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.
The Zacks Rank is a proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. Century Aluminum is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CENX's full-year earnings has moved 15.7% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Based on the latest available data, CENX has gained about 21.9% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Industrial Products sector has returned an average of 8.8% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Century Aluminum is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
Donaldson (DCI) is another Industrial Products stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 12.4%.
Over the past three months, Donaldson's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1.5%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Breaking things down more, Century Aluminum is a member of the Metal Products - Procurement and Fabrication industry, which includes 8 individual companies and currently sits at #13 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 11.6% so far this year, meaning that CENX is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.
In contrast, Donaldson falls under the Pollution Control industry. Currently, this industry has 7 stocks and is ranked #22. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +4.9%.
Going forward, investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should continue to pay close attention to Century Aluminum and Donaldson as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Century Aluminum Company (CENX): Free Stock Analysis Report Donaldson Company, Inc. (DCI): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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