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Is Northrop Grumman (NOC) Stock Outpacing Its Aerospace Peers This Year?

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The Aerospace group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Northrop Grumman (NOC - 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 NOC and the rest of the Aerospace group's stocks.

Northrop Grumman is one of 34 companies in the Aerospace group. The Aerospace group currently sits at #2 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. NOC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for NOC's full-year earnings has moved 3.86% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, NOC has gained about 43.61% so far this year. In comparison, Aerospace companies have returned an average of 32.64%. As we can see, Northrop Grumman is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, NOC belongs to the Aerospace - Defense industry, a group that includes 12 individual companies and currently sits at #44 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 27.79% so far this year, so NOC is performing better in this area.

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


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