Investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Century Aluminum (CENX) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Century Aluminum is one of 180 companies in the Industrial Products group. The Industrial Products group currently sits at #8 within 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 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. Century Aluminum is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CENX's full-year earnings has moved 116.8% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.
According to our latest data, CENX has moved about 21.3% on a year-to-date basis. In comparison, Industrial Products companies have returned an average of 14.5%. This shows that Century Aluminum is outperforming its peers so far this year.
One other Industrial Products stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Kennametal (KMT). The stock is up 35% year-to-date.
In Kennametal's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 50% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Looking more specifically, Century Aluminum belongs to the Metal Products - Procurement and Fabrication industry, a group that includes 6 individual stocks and currently sits at #17 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 7.9% this year, meaning that CENX is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.
Kennametal, however, belongs to the Manufacturing - Tools & Related Products industry. Currently, this 8-stock industry is ranked #25. The industry has moved +15.3% so far this year.
Going forward, investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should continue to pay close attention to Century Aluminum and Kennametal as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Century Aluminum Company (CENX): Free Stock Analysis Report Kennametal Inc. (KMT): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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