The Consumer Staples group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Coca-Cola (KO) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Coca-Cola is one of 187 companies in the Consumer Staples group. The Consumer Staples group currently sits at #15 within 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 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. Coca-Cola is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for KO's full-year earnings has moved 1% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.
Based on the latest available data, KO has gained about 28.4% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Staples sector has returned an average of 7.8% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Coca-Cola is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.
Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. (GO) is another Consumer Staples stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 18%.
In Grocery Outlet Holding Corp.'s case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 12.9% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, Coca-Cola belongs to the Beverages - Soft drinks industry, a group that includes 21 individual stocks and currently sits at #98 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 14.4% so far this year, so KO is performing better in this area.
On the other hand, Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. belongs to the Consumer Products - Staples industry. This 35-stock industry is currently ranked #196. The industry has moved +4% year to date.
Coca-Cola and Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.
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CocaCola Company (The) (KO): Free Stock Analysis Report
Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. (GO): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).