Is Avient (AVNT) 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. Avient (AVNT) 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.

Avient is a member of our Basic Materials group, which includes 279 different companies and currently sits at #14 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. Avient is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AVNT's full-year earnings has moved 3.9% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the latest available data, AVNT has gained about 30.5% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Basic Materials group have gained about 11.5% on average. As we can see, Avient is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Stepan Co. (SCL) is another Basic Materials stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 31.3%.

For Stepan Co., the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 6.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Breaking things down more, Avient is a member of the Chemical - Diversified industry, which includes 31 individual companies and currently sits at #107 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 9.6% this year, meaning that AVNT is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Stepan Co. is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to Avient and Stepan Co. as they could maintain their solid performance.

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

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