Are Industrial Products Stocks Lagging W.W. Grainger (GWW) This Year?

GWW MSA

The Industrial Products group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is W.W. Grainger (GWW - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

W.W. Grainger is a member of our Industrial Products group, which includes 226 different companies and currently sits at #3 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. W.W. Grainger is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GWW's full-year earnings has moved 1.4% higher within the past quarter. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that GWW has returned about 22.8% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Industrial Products companies have returned an average of 12.7%. This means that W.W. Grainger is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

One other Industrial Products stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is MSA Safety (MSA - Free Report) . The stock is up 14.7% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, MSA Safety's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 4.4%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, W.W. Grainger belongs to the Industrial Services industry, a group that includes 22 individual stocks and currently sits at #162 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 16.5% so far this year, so GWW is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

MSA Safety, however, belongs to the Security and Safety Services industry. Currently, this 20-stock industry is ranked #37. The industry has moved +11.1% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should continue to pay close attention to W.W. Grainger and MSA Safety as they could maintain their solid performance.

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