Are Aerospace Stocks Lagging GE Aerospace (GE) This Year?

For those looking to find strong Aerospace stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. GE Aerospace (GE) 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? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Aerospace sector should help us answer this question.

GE Aerospace is one of 63 individual stocks in the Aerospace sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #3 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 successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. GE Aerospace is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GE's full-year earnings has moved 5.7% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, GE has gained about 72.2% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Aerospace sector has returned an average of 27.2% on a year-to-date basis. This means that GE Aerospace is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another Aerospace stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is AAR (AIR). The stock has returned 32.4% year-to-date.

For AAR, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 2.9% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, GE Aerospace belongs to the Aerospace - Defense industry, a group that includes 25 individual companies and currently sits at #61 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 26.8% this year, meaning that GE is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, AAR belongs to the Aerospace - Defense Equipment industry. This 37-stock industry is currently ranked #97. The industry has moved +28.2% year to date.

Going forward, investors interested in Aerospace stocks should continue to pay close attention to GE Aerospace and AAR as they could maintain their solid performance.

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

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