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Is Hershey (HSY) Outperforming Other Consumer Staples Stocks This Year?

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Investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Hershey (HSY - 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.

Hershey is a member of our Consumer Staples group, which includes 198 different companies and currently sits at #6 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 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. Hershey is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for HSY's full-year earnings has moved 4.7% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the latest available data, HSY has gained about 2.9% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Staples sector has returned an average of -2.9% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Hershey is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Consumer Staples stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Lamb Weston (LW - Free Report) . The stock is up 13% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Lamb Weston's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 30.1%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Hershey belongs to the Food - Confectionery industry, a group that includes 3 individual companies and currently sits at #37 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 3.2% this year, meaning that HSY is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, Lamb Weston belongs to the Food - Miscellaneous industry. This 50-stock industry is currently ranked #88. The industry has moved -4.1% year to date.

Hershey and Lamb Weston could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.


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