For those looking to find strong Construction stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Granite Construction (GVA) 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 Construction sector should help us answer this question.
Granite Construction is a member of our Construction group, which includes 92 different companies and currently sits at #14 in 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. Granite Construction is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GVA's full-year earnings has moved 2.7% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.
Our latest available data shows that GVA has returned about 23.3% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Construction stocks have gained an average of 7.8%. This shows that Granite Construction is outperforming its peers so far this year.
Another stock in the Construction sector, Sterling Infrastructure (STRL), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 100.6%.
The consensus estimate for Sterling Infrastructure's current year EPS has increased 11.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
To break things down more, Granite Construction belongs to the Building Products - Heavy Construction industry, a group that includes 9 individual companies and currently sits at #3 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 44.8% this year, meaning that GVA is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.
On the other hand, Sterling Infrastructure belongs to the Engineering - R and D Services industry. This 15-stock industry is currently ranked #169. The industry has moved +20.1% year to date.
Going forward, investors interested in Construction stocks should continue to pay close attention to Granite Construction and Sterling Infrastructure as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Granite Construction Incorporated (GVA): Free Stock Analysis Report Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (STRL): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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