Is Cintas (CTAS) Stock Outpacing Its Business Services Peers This Year?

Investors interested in Business Services stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Cintas (CTAS) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Cintas is a member of the Business Services sector. This group includes 271 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #3. 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 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. Cintas is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CTAS' full-year earnings has moved 1.9% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, CTAS has returned 20.7% so far this year. In comparison, Business Services companies have returned an average of 0.3%. This means that Cintas is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another stock in the Business Services sector, H20 (HTO), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 7.3%.

Over the past three months, H20's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 0.9%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Cintas belongs to the Business - Services industry, a group that includes 26 individual stocks and currently sits at #72 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 16.3% so far this year, so CTAS is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, H20 belongs to the Waste Removal Services industry. This 23-stock industry is currently ranked #176. The industry has moved +9.9% year to date.

Cintas and H20 could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Business Services stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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

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