The Consumer Discretionary group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Central Garden (CENT) 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? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Central Garden is one of 258 companies in the Consumer Discretionary group. The Consumer Discretionary group currently sits at #8 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.
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. Central Garden is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CENT's full-year earnings has moved 1.6% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Our latest available data shows that CENT has returned about 21% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Discretionary sector has returned an average of -2.5% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Central Garden is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
Another stock in the Consumer Discretionary sector, Central Garden (CENTA), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 16.8%.
Over the past three months, Central Garden's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1.6%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, Central Garden belongs to the Consumer Products - Discretionary industry, a group that includes 28 individual companies and currently sits at #88 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 11.1% this year, meaning that CENT is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Central Garden is also part of the same industry.
Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to Central Garden and Central Garden as they could maintain their solid performance.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Central Garden & Pet Company (CENT): Free Stock Analysis Report Central Garden & Pet Company (CENTA): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
Zacks Investment Research
