Investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Albemarle (ALB) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Albemarle is a member of the Basic Materials sector. This group includes 254 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #11. 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. Albemarle is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ALB's full-year earnings has moved 553.5% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Based on the most recent data, ALB has returned 28.3% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has returned an average of 10% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Albemarle is outperforming its peers so far this year.
One other Basic Materials stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Materion (MTRN). The stock is up 19.1% year-to-date.
For Materion, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Breaking things down more, Albemarle is a member of the Chemical - Diversified industry, which includes 29 individual companies and currently sits at #206 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 31.5% so far this year, so ALB is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
On the other hand, Materion belongs to the Mining - Miscellaneous industry. This 73-stock industry is currently ranked #81. The industry has moved +10.3% year to date.
Albemarle and Materion could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).