The Aerospace group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Kratos (KTOS) 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.
Kratos is one of 68 companies in the Aerospace group. The Aerospace group currently sits at #1 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 system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Kratos is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for KTOS' full-year earnings has moved 3.3% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Our latest available data shows that KTOS has returned about 19.5% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Aerospace stocks have gained an average of 12.8%. As we can see, Kratos is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another stock in the Aerospace sector, Woodward (WWD), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 30.6%.
For Woodward, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 8.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Breaking things down more, Kratos is a member of the Aerospace - Defense Equipment industry, which includes 37 individual companies and currently sits at #57 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 12.6% this year, meaning that KTOS is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Woodward is also part of the same industry.
Going forward, investors interested in Aerospace stocks should continue to pay close attention to Kratos and Woodward as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (KTOS): Free Stock Analysis Report Woodward, Inc. (WWD): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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