Is Energias de Portugal (EDPFY) Stock Outpacing Its Utilities Peers This Year?

The Utilities group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Energias de Portugal (EDPFY) 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? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Energias de Portugal is one of 111 individual stocks in the Utilities sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #10 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

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. Energias de Portugal is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for EDPFY's full-year earnings has moved 2.8% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the latest available data, EDPFY has gained about 19.9% so far this year. At the same time, Utilities stocks have lost an average of 0.7%. As we can see, Energias de Portugal is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Utilities stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Evergy Inc (EVRG). The stock is up 14.9% year-to-date.

For Evergy Inc, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 0.2% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Energias de Portugal belongs to the Utility - Electric Power industry, a group that includes 63 individual stocks and currently sits at #91 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 0.2% so far this year, meaning that EDPFY is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Evergy Inc is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Utilities stocks should continue to pay close attention to Energias de Portugal and Evergy Inc 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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