The Consumer Discretionary group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Alto Ingredients (ALTO) 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 Consumer Discretionary sector should help us answer this question.
Alto Ingredients is a member of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This group includes 258 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #1. 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 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. Alto Ingredients is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ALTO's full-year earnings has moved 18.8% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Our latest available data shows that ALTO has returned about 44.4% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Consumer Discretionary companies have returned an average of -9.3%. This means that Alto Ingredients is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
One other Consumer Discretionary stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Central Garden (CENTA). The stock is up 6.8% year-to-date.
For Central Garden, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, Alto Ingredients belongs to the Consumer Products - Discretionary industry, a group that includes 28 individual companies and currently sits at #64 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 5.2% so far this year, so ALTO is performing better in this area. Central Garden is also part of the same industry.
Alto Ingredients 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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Alto Ingredients, Inc. (ALTO): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).