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Are Construction Stocks Lagging Lennar (LEN) This Year?

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The Construction group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Lennar (LEN - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Lennar is one of 99 companies in the Construction group. The Construction group currently sits at #1 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 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. Lennar is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for LEN's full-year earnings has moved 28.7% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, LEN has returned 39.3% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Construction sector has returned an average of 33.9% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Lennar is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another stock in the Construction sector, M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. , has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 57.9%.

Over the past three months, M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.'s consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 41.3%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

To break things down more, Lennar belongs to the Building Products - Home Builders industry, a group that includes 19 individual companies and currently sits at #4 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 52.4% so far this year, so LEN is slightly underperforming its industry in this area. M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. is also part of the same industry.

Lennar and M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Construction stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.


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