Is Consolidated Water (CWCO) Stock Outpacing Its Utilities Peers This Year?

CWCO EBR

For those looking to find strong Utilities stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Consolidated Water (CWCO - 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? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Consolidated Water is one of 108 companies in the Utilities group. The Utilities group currently sits at #9 within 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. Consolidated Water is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CWCO's full-year earnings has moved 27.6% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that CWCO has returned about 39.9% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Utilities sector has returned an average of 0.2% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Consolidated Water is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Eletrobras (EBR - Free Report) is another Utilities stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 43%.

Over the past three months, Eletrobras' consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 84.8%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Consolidated Water belongs to the Utility - Water Supply industry, a group that includes 12 individual companies and currently sits at #147 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 14.3% so far this year, meaning that CWCO is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Eletrobras, however, belongs to the Utility - Electric Power industry. Currently, this 61-stock industry is ranked #93. The industry has moved +0.1% so far this year.

Consolidated Water and Eletrobras could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Utilities stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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