Investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Olympic Steel (ZEUS Quick QuoteZEUS - 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.

Olympic Steel is a member of the Basic Materials sector. This group includes 250 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #9. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

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. ZEUS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ZEUS's full-year earnings has moved 77.97% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that ZEUS has returned about 89.95% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has returned an average of 10.54% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Olympic Steel is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Breaking things down more, ZEUS is a member of the Steel - Producers industry, which includes 24 individual companies and currently sits at #24 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 51.01% so far this year, so ZEUS 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 ZEUS as it attempts to continue its solid performance.