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Is Pinnacle Foods (PF) Outperforming Other Consumer Staples Stocks This Year?

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Investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Pinnacle Foods 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? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of PF and the rest of the Consumer Staples group's stocks.

Pinnacle Foods is a member of our Consumer Staples group, which includes 177 different companies and currently sits at #15 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 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. PF is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PF's full-year earnings has moved 0.03% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, PF has returned 10.74% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Staples sector has returned an average of -8.02% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Pinnacle Foods is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Looking more specifically, PF belongs to the Food - Miscellaneous industry, a group that includes 42 individual stocks and currently sits at #213 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 4.75% so far this year, so PF is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

PF will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.