For those looking to find strong Basic Materials stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has The Chemours (CC Quick QuoteCC - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

The Chemours is one of 239 individual stocks in the Basic Materials sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #6 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. CC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CC's full-year earnings has moved 29.47% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the latest available data, CC has gained about 7.95% so far this year. At the same time, Basic Materials stocks have gained an average of 1.48%. This means that The Chemours is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Looking more specifically, CC belongs to the Chemical - Diversified industry, which includes 41 individual stocks and currently sits at #35 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 1.85% so far this year, so CC is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Basic Materials sector will want to keep a close eye on CC as it attempts to continue its solid performance.