Is Carpenter Technology (CRS) Stock Outpacing Its Basic Materials Peers This Year?

The Basic Materials group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Carpenter Technology (CRS) 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.

Carpenter Technology is a member of our Basic Materials group, which includes 275 different companies and currently sits at #13 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 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. Carpenter Technology is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CRS' full-year earnings has moved 3.3% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

According to our latest data, CRS has moved about 83.8% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has returned an average of 6.7% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Carpenter Technology is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Element Solutions (ESI) is another Basic Materials stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 59.3%.

For Element Solutions, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Carpenter Technology belongs to the Steel - Speciality industry, a group that includes 6 individual stocks and currently sits at #30 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 69.7% so far this year, so CRS is performing better in this area.

In contrast, Element Solutions falls under the Chemical - Specialty industry. Currently, this industry has 46 stocks and is ranked #93. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +13.4%.

Carpenter Technology and Element Solutions could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Basic Materials 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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