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Is American Vanguard (AVD) Outperforming Other Basic Materials Stocks This Year?
For those looking to find strong Basic Materials stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has American Vanguard (AVD - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
American Vanguard is one of 237 individual stocks in the Basic Materials sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #14 in 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. American Vanguard is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AVD's full-year earnings has moved 13.2% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
According to our latest data, AVD has moved about 15% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has returned an average of -1.3% on a year-to-date basis. This means that American Vanguard is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.
One other Basic Materials stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Ecolab (ECL - Free Report) . The stock is up 15.6% year-to-date.
In Ecolab's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Breaking things down more, American Vanguard is a member of the Chemical - Specialty industry, which includes 33 individual companies and currently sits at #88 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 9.9% this year, meaning that AVD is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Ecolab is also part of the same industry.
Going forward, investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to American Vanguard and Ecolab as they could maintain their solid performance.