Are Consumer Discretionary Stocks Lagging Laureate Education (LAUR) This Year?

Investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Laureate Education (LAUR) been one of those stocks this year? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Consumer Discretionary sector should help us answer this question.

Laureate Education is a member of our Consumer Discretionary group, which includes 253 different companies and currently sits at #9 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. Laureate Education is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for LAUR'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 LAUR has returned about 50.3% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Discretionary sector has returned an average of 11.5% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Laureate Education is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Another stock in the Consumer Discretionary sector, Lincoln Educational Services Corporation (LINC), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 18.9%.

For Lincoln Educational Services Corporation, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 4.9% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Laureate Education belongs to the Schools industry, a group that includes 18 individual stocks and currently sits at #18 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 6.7% this year, meaning that LAUR is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Lincoln Educational Services Corporation is also part of the same industry.

Investors interested in the Consumer Discretionary sector may want to keep a close eye on Laureate Education and Lincoln Educational Services Corporation as they attempt to continue their solid performance.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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