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Are Consumer Staples Stocks Lagging Edgewell Personal Care (EPC) This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Consumer Staples stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Edgewell Personal Care (EPC - 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 Staples sector should help us answer this question.

Edgewell Personal Care is one of 192 individual stocks in the Consumer Staples sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #6 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

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. Edgewell Personal Care is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for EPC's full-year earnings has moved 4.4% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, EPC has returned 6.5% so far this year. In comparison, Consumer Staples companies have returned an average of 3.7%. As we can see, Edgewell Personal Care is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Consumer Staples stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Vital Farms (VITL - Free Report) . The stock has returned 177.7% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Vital Farms' consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 17.6%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, Edgewell Personal Care belongs to the Consumer Products - Staples industry, a group that includes 29 individual stocks and currently sits at #41 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 1% so far this year, meaning that EPC is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Vital Farms falls under the Food - Miscellaneous industry. Currently, this industry has 45 stocks and is ranked #71. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -0.7%.

Edgewell Personal Care and Vital Farms could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.


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