The Consumer Discretionary group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Central Garden (CENT) one of those stocks right now? 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.
Central Garden is one of 243 companies in the Consumer Discretionary group. The Consumer Discretionary group currently sits at #8 within 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 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. Central Garden is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CENT's full-year earnings has moved 2.8% 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 CENT has returned about 17.5% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Discretionary group have lost about 9.6% on average. This means that Central Garden is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
One other Consumer Discretionary stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Carter's (CRI). The stock is up 0.9% year-to-date.
In Carter's' case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 32.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
To break things down more, Central Garden belongs to the Consumer Products - Discretionary industry, a group that includes 25 individual companies and currently sits at #98 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 2.2% this year, meaning that CENT is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.
On the other hand, Carter's belongs to the Shoes and Retail Apparel industry. This 7-stock industry is currently ranked #103. The industry has moved -29.6% year to date.
Central Garden and Carter's could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.
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Central Garden & Pet Company (CENT): Free Stock Analysis Report
Carter's, Inc. (CRI): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).