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Is Howmet Aerospace (HWM) Outperforming Other Aerospace Stocks This Year?

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Investors interested in Aerospace stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Howmet (HWM - 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 Aerospace sector should help us answer this question.

Howmet is one of 81 companies in the Aerospace group. The Aerospace group currently sits at #2 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 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. Howmet is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for HWM's full-year earnings has moved 5.7% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that HWM has returned about 11.4% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Aerospace sector has returned an average of -11.3% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Howmet is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

RTX (RTX - Free Report) is another Aerospace stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 0.9%.

For RTX, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 4.4% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Howmet belongs to the Aerospace - Defense industry, a group that includes 42 individual companies and currently sits at #108 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 12.5% so far this year, so HWM is performing better in this area. RTX is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Aerospace stocks should continue to pay close attention to Howmet and RTX as they could maintain their solid performance.

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