Are Aerospace Stocks Lagging Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) 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. Is Huntington Ingalls (HII) one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Aerospace peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Huntington Ingalls is one of 68 individual stocks in the Aerospace sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #1 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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. Huntington Ingalls is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for HII's full-year earnings has moved 1.2% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the latest available data, HII has gained about 21.5% so far this year. In comparison, Aerospace companies have returned an average of 7.1%. This means that Huntington Ingalls is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Moog (MOG.A) is another Aerospace stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 32.2%.

Over the past three months, Moog's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 5.8%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Huntington Ingalls belongs to the Aerospace - Defense industry, a group that includes 30 individual companies and currently sits at #95 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 7.4% this year, meaning that HII is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Moog falls under the Aerospace - Defense Equipment industry. Currently, this industry has 37 stocks and is ranked #55. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +6.4%.

Going forward, investors interested in Aerospace stocks should continue to pay close attention to Huntington Ingalls and Moog 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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