Are Utilities Stocks Lagging Entergy (ETR) This Year?

The Utilities group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Entergy (ETR) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Utilities peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Entergy is a member of our Utilities group, which includes 106 different companies and currently sits at #4 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 is a proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Entergy is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ETR's full-year earnings has moved 0% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, ETR has gained about 9% so far this year. At the same time, Utilities stocks have gained an average of 7.8%. This means that Entergy is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

One other Utilities stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Innergex (INGXF). The stock is up 77.8% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for Innergex's current year EPS has increased 42.2% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Entergy is a member of the Utility - Electric Power industry, which includes 60 individual companies and currently sits at #84 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 7.5% so far this year, so ETR is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns. Innergex is also part of the same industry.

Entergy and Innergex could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Utilities 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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