Investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. B&G Foods (BGS) 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.
B&G Foods is a member of our Consumer Staples group, which includes 173 different companies and currently sits at #16 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 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. B&G Foods is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BGS' full-year earnings has moved 8% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.
Our latest available data shows that BGS has returned about 27.2% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Staples sector has returned an average of 4.7% on a year-to-date basis. This means that B&G Foods is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
Another stock in the Consumer Staples sector, Helen of Troy (HELE), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 10.4%.
The consensus estimate for Helen of Troy's current year EPS has increased 3.6% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, B&G Foods belongs to the Food - Miscellaneous industry, which includes 41 individual stocks and currently sits at #198 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 4.5% so far this year, so BGS is performing better in this area.
In contrast, Helen of Troy falls under the Cosmetics industry. Currently, this industry has 9 stocks and is ranked #96. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -24.3%.
Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to B&G Foods and Helen of Troy as they could maintain their solid performance.
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B&G Foods, Inc. (BGS): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).