Are Consumer Discretionary Stocks Lagging Acco Brands (ACCO) This Year?

For those looking to find strong Consumer Discretionary stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Acco Brands (ACCO) been one of those stocks this year? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Consumer Discretionary sector should help us answer this question.

Acco Brands is a member of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This group includes 260 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #12. 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. Acco Brands is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ACCO's full-year earnings has moved 9.6% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, ACCO has returned 46.4% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Discretionary sector has returned an average of -9.7% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Acco Brands is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Barnes & Noble Education (BNED) is another Consumer Discretionary stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 38.5%.

The consensus estimate for Barnes & Noble Education's current year EPS has increased 11.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Acco Brands belongs to the Consumer Products - Discretionary industry, which includes 28 individual stocks and currently sits at #187 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 12.2% so far this year, meaning that ACCO is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Barnes & Noble Education is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to Acco Brands and Barnes & Noble Education 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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