For those looking to find strong Basic Materials stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Royal Gold (RGLD) one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Basic Materials peers, we might be able to answer that question.
Royal Gold is a member of the Basic Materials sector. This group includes 238 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #10. 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 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. Royal Gold is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RGLD's full-year earnings has moved 11.9% higher within the past quarter. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.
According to our latest data, RGLD has moved about 27.6% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Basic Materials stocks have gained an average of 12.5%. As we can see, Royal Gold is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
One other Basic Materials stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is B2Gold (BTG). The stock is up 50.8% year-to-date.
In B2Gold's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 35.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, Royal Gold belongs to the Mining - Gold industry, a group that includes 39 individual stocks and currently sits at #21 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 56.2% this year, meaning that RGLD is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns. B2Gold is also part of the same industry.
Investors interested in the Basic Materials sector may want to keep a close eye on Royal Gold and B2Gold as they attempt to continue their solid performance.
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Royal Gold, Inc. (RGLD): Free Stock Analysis Report B2Gold Corp (BTG): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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