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Is Grand Canyon Education (LOPE) Stock Outpacing Its Consumer Discretionary Peers This Year?

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Investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Grand Canyon Education (LOPE - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Consumer Discretionary peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Grand Canyon Education is one of 281 companies in the Consumer Discretionary group. The Consumer Discretionary group currently sits at #12 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

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. Grand Canyon Education is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LOPE's full-year earnings has moved 4.5% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that LOPE has returned about 29.8% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Discretionary group have gained about 11.6% on average. As we can see, Grand Canyon Education is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Live Nation (LYV - Free Report) is another Consumer Discretionary stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 25.9%.

Over the past three months, Live Nation's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 37.5%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Breaking things down more, Grand Canyon Education is a member of the Schools industry, which includes 19 individual companies and currently sits at #16 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 33.6% so far this year, meaning that LOPE is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, Live Nation belongs to the Leisure and Recreation Services industry. This 35-stock industry is currently ranked #143. The industry has moved +13.9% year to date.

Grand Canyon Education and Live Nation could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.


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