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Are Transportation Stocks Lagging Global Ship Lease (GSL) This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Transportation stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Global Ship Lease (GSL - 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? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Transportation peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Global Ship Lease is a member of our Transportation group, which includes 110 different companies and currently sits at #2 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. Global Ship Lease is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GSL's full-year earnings has moved 1.3% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

According to our latest data, GSL has moved about 26.1% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Transportation stocks have gained an average of 14.6%. As we can see, Global Ship Lease is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Star Bulk Carriers (SBLK - Free Report) is another Transportation stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 53.9%.

For Star Bulk Carriers, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 14% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, Global Ship Lease belongs to the Transportation - Shipping industry, a group that includes 28 individual stocks and currently sits at #27 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 51.3% so far this year, so GSL is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns. Star Bulk Carriers is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Transportation stocks should continue to pay close attention to Global Ship Lease and Star Bulk Carriers as they could maintain their solid performance.

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