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Is Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL) Stock Outpacing Its Consumer Discretionary Peers This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Consumer Discretionary stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Royal Caribbean (RCL - Free Report) 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? 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.

Royal Caribbean is one of 282 individual stocks in the Consumer Discretionary sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #8 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 is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. Royal Caribbean is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RCL's full-year earnings has moved 44.7% 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 RCL has returned about 108.2% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Discretionary group have gained about 14.7% on average. This shows that Royal Caribbean is outperforming its peers so far this year.

One other Consumer Discretionary stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is WW International (WW - Free Report) . The stock is up 133.2% year-to-date.

In WW International's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 1.6% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Royal Caribbean belongs to the Leisure and Recreation Services industry, which includes 34 individual stocks and currently sits at #123 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 31.2% so far this year, meaning that RCL is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. WW International is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to Royal Caribbean and WW International as they could maintain their solid performance.


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