The Transportation group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Matson (MATX) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Transportation sector should help us answer this question.
Matson is one of 110 individual stocks in the Transportation sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #1 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.
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. Matson is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MATX's full-year earnings has moved 2.7% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.
Based on the latest available data, MATX has gained about 66.3% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Transportation sector has returned an average of 17.2% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Matson is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
Werner Enterprises (WERN) is another Transportation stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 34.7%.
In Werner Enterprises' case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 18% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, Matson belongs to the Transportation - Services industry, a group that includes 20 individual companies and currently sits at #90 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 9.3% this year, meaning that MATX is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.
Werner Enterprises, however, belongs to the Transportation - Truck industry. Currently, this 12-stock industry is ranked #7. The industry has moved +43.4% so far this year.
Matson and Werner Enterprises could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Transportation stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).