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Are Industrial Products Stocks Lagging Fastenal (FAST) This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Industrial Products stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Fastenal (FAST - 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.

Fastenal is a member of our Industrial Products group, which includes 186 different companies and currently sits at #5 in 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. Fastenal is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FAST's full-year earnings has moved 2.1% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the latest available data, FAST has gained about 22.1% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Industrial Products sector has returned an average of 13.5% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Fastenal is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another stock in the Industrial Products sector, Kubota Corp. (KUBTY - Free Report) , has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 25.2%.

For Kubota Corp., the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 56.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Fastenal is a member of the Industrial Services industry, which includes 16 individual companies and currently sits at #179 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 7.7% this year, meaning that FAST is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Kubota Corp. falls under the Manufacturing - Farm Equipment industry. Currently, this industry has 6 stocks and is ranked #187. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +44.5%.

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

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