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Is Hershey (HSY) Stock Outpacing Its Consumer Staples Peers This Year?

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Investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Hershey (HSY - Free Report) 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? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of HSY and the rest of the Consumer Staples group's stocks.

Hershey is one of 176 individual stocks in the Consumer Staples sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #5 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 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. HSY is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for HSY's full-year earnings has moved 0.64% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that HSY has returned about 42.80% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Staples group have gained about 19.35% on average. This shows that Hershey is outperforming its peers so far this year.

To break things down more, HSY belongs to the Food - Confectionery industry, a group that includes 3 individual companies and currently sits at #102 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 41.79% so far this year, so HSY is performing better in this area.

HSY will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.


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