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Is United States Steel (X) Stock Outpacing Its Basic Materials Peers This Year?

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Investors focused on the Basic Materials space have likely heard of United States Steel (X - Free Report) , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? 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.

United States Steel is one of 242 companies in the Basic Materials group. The Basic Materials group currently sits at #3 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. X is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for X's full-year earnings has moved 32.58% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, X has moved about 3.15% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, stocks in the Basic Materials group have gained about 0.86% on average. This means that United States Steel is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Breaking things down more, X is a member of the Steel - Producers industry, which includes 25 individual companies and currently sits at #33 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 9.58% so far this year, so X is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Going forward, investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to X as it looks to continue its solid performance.


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