Are Industrial Products Stocks Lagging Helios Technologies (HLIO) This Year?

The Industrial Products group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Helios Technologies (HLIO) 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? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Industrial Products sector should help us answer this question.

Helios Technologies is a member of our Industrial Products group, which includes 186 different companies and currently sits at #5 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 proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. Helios Technologies is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for HLIO's full-year earnings has moved 10.1% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, HLIO has returned 24.3% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Industrial Products sector has returned an average of 11.6% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Helios Technologies is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Another stock in the Industrial Products sector, Nordson (NDSN), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 28.6%.

For Nordson, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 2.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Helios Technologies belongs to the Manufacturing - General Industrial industry, a group that includes 41 individual companies and currently sits at #67 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 1% so far this year, so HLIO is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns. Nordson is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should continue to pay close attention to Helios Technologies and Nordson 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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