Are Consumer Staples Stocks Lagging Danone (DANOY) This Year?

For those looking to find strong Consumer Staples stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Danone (DANOY) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Consumer Staples peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Danone is a member of the Consumer Staples sector. This group includes 178 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #13. 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. Danone is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for DANOY's full-year earnings has moved 8.6% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

According to our latest data, DANOY has moved about 24.4% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Consumer Staples stocks have gained an average of 5%. This means that Danone is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another Consumer Staples stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is HF FOODS GROUP INC. (HFFG). The stock has returned 21.5% year-to-date.

For HF FOODS GROUP INC. the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 16.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Danone is a member of the Food - Miscellaneous industry, which includes 41 individual companies and currently sits at #93 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 3.4% so far this year, so DANOY is performing better in this area. HF FOODS GROUP INC. is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to Danone and HF FOODS GROUP INC. 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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