Is HudBay Minerals (HBM) Stock Outpacing Its Basic Materials Peers This Year?

Investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. HudBay Minerals (HBM) 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.

HudBay Minerals is a member of our Basic Materials group, which includes 233 different companies and currently sits at #12 in 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 successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. HudBay Minerals is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HBM's full-year earnings has moved 18% higher within the past quarter. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the latest available data, HBM has gained about 20% so far this year. In comparison, Basic Materials companies have returned an average of 8.7%. As we can see, HudBay Minerals is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another stock in the Basic Materials sector, MAG Silver (MAG), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 57.4%.

For MAG Silver, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 20.9% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, HudBay Minerals belongs to the Mining - Miscellaneous industry, which includes 58 individual stocks and currently sits at #146 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 10.6% so far this year, so HBM is performing better in this area.

In contrast, MAG Silver falls under the Mining - Silver industry. Currently, this industry has 9 stocks and is ranked #24. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +34.7%.

Investors interested in the Basic Materials sector may want to keep a close eye on HudBay Minerals and MAG Silver 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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