Is Accel Entertainment (ACEL) Stock Outpacing Its Consumer Discretionary Peers This Year?

The Consumer Discretionary group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Accel Entertainment (ACEL) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Consumer Discretionary peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Accel Entertainment is one of 243 individual stocks in the Consumer Discretionary sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #9 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. Accel Entertainment is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ACEL's full-year earnings has moved 4.6% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, ACEL has returned 0.5% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Discretionary sector has returned an average of -9.5% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Accel Entertainment is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Consumer Discretionary stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Central Garden (CENTA). The stock has returned 17.9% year-to-date.

For Central Garden, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 4.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Accel Entertainment belongs to the Gaming industry, a group that includes 37 individual companies and currently sits at #146 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 21.6% so far this year, so ACEL is performing better in this area.

In contrast, Central Garden falls under the Consumer Products - Discretionary industry. Currently, this industry has 25 stocks and is ranked #89. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -1.7%.

Accel Entertainment and Central Garden 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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