Is Caterpillar (CAT) Outperforming Other Industrial Products Stocks This Year?

Investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Caterpillar (CAT) been one of those stocks this year? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Industrial Products sector should help us answer this question.

Caterpillar is a member of our Industrial Products group, which includes 183 different companies and currently sits at #8 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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. Caterpillar is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CAT's full-year earnings has moved 2% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that CAT has returned about 23.7% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Industrial Products group have gained about 8% on average. This means that Caterpillar is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another stock in the Industrial Products sector, Gorman-Rupp (GRC), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 30.1%.

For Gorman-Rupp, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 3.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Caterpillar belongs to the Manufacturing - Construction and Mining industry, which includes 6 individual stocks and currently sits at #99 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 23.4% so far this year, so CAT is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Gorman-Rupp falls under the Manufacturing - General Industrial industry. Currently, this industry has 42 stocks and is ranked #67. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +3.5%.

Going forward, investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should continue to pay close attention to Caterpillar and Gorman-Rupp as they could maintain their solid performance.

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Caterpillar Inc. (CAT): Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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