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Are Consumer Staples Stocks Lagging Edgewell Personal Care (EPC) This Year?

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The Consumer Staples group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Edgewell Personal Care (EPC - Free Report) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Consumer Staples sector should help us answer this question.

Edgewell Personal Care is one of 193 individual stocks in the Consumer Staples sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #14 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 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. Edgewell Personal Care is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for EPC's full-year earnings has moved 3.3% 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 EPC has returned about 4.8% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Consumer Staples stocks have gained an average of 1.4%. As we can see, Edgewell Personal Care is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Colgate-Palmolive (CL - Free Report) is another Consumer Staples stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 8.4%.

In Colgate-Palmolive's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 1.2% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Edgewell Personal Care belongs to the Consumer Products - Staples industry, a group that includes 30 individual companies and currently sits at #147 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 7% so far this year, meaning that EPC is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, Colgate-Palmolive belongs to the Soap and Cleaning Materials industry. This 7-stock industry is currently ranked #30. The industry has moved +7.8% year to date.

Investors interested in the Consumer Staples sector may want to keep a close eye on Edgewell Personal Care and Colgate-Palmolive as they attempt to continue their solid performance.


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