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Is Central Garden & Pet (CENT) Stock Outpacing Its Consumer Discretionary Peers This Year?

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The Consumer Discretionary group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Central Garden (CENT - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Consumer Discretionary sector should help us answer this question.

Central Garden is a member of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This group includes 282 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #14. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

The Zacks Rank is a proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Central Garden is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CENT's full-year earnings has moved 10% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, CENT has returned 14% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Discretionary group have gained about 9.2% on average. As we can see, Central Garden is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Consumer Discretionary stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is DoubleDown Interactive Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR (DDI - Free Report) . The stock is up 11% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, DoubleDown Interactive Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 8.3%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

To break things down more, Central Garden belongs to the Consumer Products - Discretionary industry, a group that includes 26 individual companies and currently sits at #75 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 9.5% so far this year, meaning that CENT is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

DoubleDown Interactive Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR, however, belongs to the Gaming industry. Currently, this 41-stock industry is ranked #161. The industry has moved +20.1% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to Central Garden and DoubleDown Interactive Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR as they could maintain their solid performance.


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