Is Hitachi (HTHIY) Stock Outpacing Its Conglomerates Peers This Year?

The Conglomerates group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Hitachi Ltd. (HTHIY) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Conglomerates sector should help us answer this question.

Hitachi Ltd. is one of 27 companies in the Conglomerates group. The Conglomerates group currently sits at #1 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

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. Hitachi Ltd. is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HTHIY's full-year earnings has moved 5.2% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, HTHIY has returned 11.1% so far this year. In comparison, Conglomerates companies have returned an average of -14%. As we can see, Hitachi Ltd. is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Mitsui & Co. (MITSY) is another Conglomerates stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 10.1%.

In Mitsui & Co.'s case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 1.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Hitachi Ltd. belongs to the Diversified Operations industry, a group that includes 27 individual companies and currently sits at #57 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 14% so far this year, so HTHIY is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns. Mitsui & Co. is also part of the same industry.

Investors with an interest in Conglomerates stocks should continue to track Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsui & Co.. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.

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

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