Are Consumer Discretionary Stocks Lagging American Public Education (APEI) This Year?

Investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. American Public Education (APEI) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? 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.

American Public Education is a member of our Consumer Discretionary group, which includes 258 different companies and currently sits at #2 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 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 7.5% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, APEI has returned 44.2% so far this year. At the same time, Consumer Discretionary stocks have lost an average of 8.1%. This means that American Public Education is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another stock in the Consumer Discretionary sector, Hugo Boss (BOSSY), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 10.2%.

The consensus estimate for Hugo Boss' current year EPS has increased 1.6% 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, which includes 18 individual stocks and currently sits at #17 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 4.1% so far this year, so APEI is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Hugo Boss, however, belongs to the Textile - Apparel industry. Currently, this 21-stock industry is ranked #87. The industry has moved -3.6% so far this year.

American Public Education and Hugo Boss could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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