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Is American Public Education (APEI) 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 American Public Education (APEI - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? 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.

American Public Education is one of 292 companies in the Consumer Discretionary group. The Consumer Discretionary group currently sits at #13 within the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 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. American Public Education is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for APEI's full-year earnings has moved 959.4% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that APEI has returned about 15.5% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Consumer Discretionary companies have returned an average of 0.1%. This means that American Public Education is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another stock in the Consumer Discretionary sector, Carter's (CRI - Free Report) , has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 1.6%.

The consensus estimate for Carter's' current year EPS has increased 0.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, American Public Education belongs to the Schools industry, a group that includes 19 individual stocks and currently sits at #28 in the Zacks Industry Rank.

Carter's, however, belongs to the Shoes and Retail Apparel industry. Currently, this 12-stock industry is ranked #202. The industry has moved -7.7% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to American Public Education and Carter's as they could maintain their solid performance.


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