Investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Ambev (ABEV) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Ambev is one of 178 individual stocks in the Consumer Staples sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #13 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. Ambev is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ABEV's full-year earnings has moved 2.8% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Our latest available data shows that ABEV has returned about 24.3% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Staples sector has returned an average of 13.5% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Ambev is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
One other Consumer Staples stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Adecoagro (AGRO). The stock is up 16% year-to-date.
For Adecoagro, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 124.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Breaking things down more, Ambev is a member of the Beverages - Alcohol industry, which includes 16 individual companies and currently sits at #149 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 19.6% so far this year, so ABEV is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
Adecoagro, however, belongs to the Agriculture - Operations industry. Currently, this 13-stock industry is ranked #186. The industry has moved +15.1% so far this year.
Ambev and Adecoagro could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.
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Ambev S.A. (ABEV): Free Stock Analysis Report Adecoagro S.A. (AGRO): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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