Are Consumer Discretionary Stocks Lagging Afya (AFYA) This Year?

For those looking to find strong Consumer Discretionary stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Afya (AFYA) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Consumer Discretionary peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Afya is one of 246 individual stocks in the Consumer Discretionary sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #4 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. Afya is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AFYA's full-year earnings has moved 8.4% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

According to our latest data, AFYA has moved about 1.6% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Consumer Discretionary stocks have lost an average of 4.9%. This means that Afya is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another Consumer Discretionary stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Sirius XM (SIRI). The stock has returned 19.5% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for Sirius XM's current year EPS has increased 0.2% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Afya belongs to the Schools industry, a group that includes 18 individual companies and currently sits at #30 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 4.6% so far this year, so AFYA is slightly underperforming its industry in this area.

In contrast, Sirius XM falls under the Broadcast Radio and Television industry. Currently, this industry has 17 stocks and is ranked #80. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +4.7%.

Afya and Sirius XM 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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