Investors focused on the Basic Materials space have likely heard of Gold Fields (GFI Quick QuoteGFI - Free Report) , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Gold Fields is a member of our Basic Materials group, which includes 248 different companies and currently sits at #13 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 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. GFI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GFI's full-year earnings has moved 320% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

According to our latest data, GFI has moved about 54.54% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Basic Materials stocks have gained an average of 3.13%. This shows that Gold Fields is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Breaking things down more, GFI is a member of the Mining - Gold industry, which includes 32 individual companies and currently sits at #12 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 44.56% this year, meaning that GFI is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Going forward, investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to GFI as it looks to continue its solid performance.