Are Aerospace Stocks Lagging CurtissWright (CW) This Year?

For those looking to find strong Aerospace stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Curtiss-Wright (CW) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Curtiss-Wright is a member of our Aerospace group, which includes 53 different companies and currently sits at #1 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. Curtiss-Wright is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CW's full-year earnings has moved 5% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, CW has returned 11.4% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Aerospace group have gained about 10.3% on average. This shows that Curtiss-Wright is outperforming its peers so far this year.

One other Aerospace stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Huntington Ingalls (HII). The stock is up 19.5% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Huntington Ingalls' consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 0.6%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Curtiss-Wright belongs to the Aerospace - Defense Equipment industry, which includes 27 individual stocks and currently sits at #21 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 3.5% so far this year, so CW is performing better in this area.

Huntington Ingalls, however, belongs to the Aerospace - Defense industry. Currently, this 25-stock industry is ranked #92. The industry has moved +12.6% so far this year.

Investors interested in the Aerospace sector may want to keep a close eye on Curtiss-Wright and Huntington Ingalls as they attempt to continue their solid performance.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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