Has Guess (GES) Outpaced Other Consumer Discretionary Stocks This Year?

The Consumer Discretionary group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Guess (GES) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Guess is a member of our Consumer Discretionary group, which includes 254 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 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. Guess is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GES' full-year earnings has moved 8.1% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, GES has returned 18.8% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Discretionary group have gained about 10.9% on average. This means that Guess is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Laureate Education (LAUR) is another Consumer Discretionary stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 62.5%.

For Laureate Education, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 3.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Guess belongs to the Textile - Apparel industry, a group that includes 21 individual stocks and currently sits at #191 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 29.6% this year, meaning that GES is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Laureate Education, however, belongs to the Schools industry. Currently, this 18-stock industry is ranked #39. The industry has moved +10.4% so far this year.

Guess and Laureate Education could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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

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