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Are Basic Materials Stocks Lagging Flotek Industries (FTK) This Year?

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The Basic Materials group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Flotek Industries (FTK - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Basic Materials sector should help us answer this question.

Flotek Industries is one of 295 companies in the Basic Materials group. The Basic Materials group currently sits at #11 within 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 successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. Flotek Industries is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FTK's full-year earnings has moved 19.1% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that FTK has returned about 28.6% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has returned an average of 5.8% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Flotek Industries is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Basic Materials stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Materion (MTRN - Free Report) . The stock has returned 42.8% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Materion's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 3.3%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Flotek Industries belongs to the Chemical - Specialty industry, which includes 48 individual stocks and currently sits at #106 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 13.2% so far this year, so FTK is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Materion falls under the Mining - Miscellaneous industry. Currently, this industry has 99 stocks and is ranked #157. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +3.9%.

Going forward, investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to Flotek Industries and Materion as they could maintain their solid performance.

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