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Are Industrial Products Stocks Lagging Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT) This Year?

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Investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Applied Industrial Technologies is one of 186 companies in the Industrial Products group. The Industrial Products group currently sits at #4 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. Applied Industrial Technologies is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AIT's full-year earnings has moved 0.6% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

According to our latest data, AIT has moved about 37.1% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Industrial Products stocks have gained an average of 18.4%. This means that Applied Industrial Technologies is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another stock in the Industrial Products sector, Idex (IEX - Free Report) , has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 30.8%.

The consensus estimate for Idex's current year EPS has increased 4.2% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Applied Industrial Technologies belongs to the Manufacturing - General Industrial industry, a group that includes 41 individual stocks and currently sits at #52 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 8.8% so far this year, meaning that AIT is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Idex is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should continue to pay close attention to Applied Industrial Technologies and Idex as they could maintain their solid performance.

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