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Has Northrop Grumman (NOC) Outpaced Other Aerospace Stocks This Year?

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Investors focused on the Aerospace space have likely heard of Northrop Grumman (NOC - 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 Aerospace sector should help us answer this question.

Northrop Grumman is one of 34 companies in the Aerospace group. The Aerospace group currently sits at #1 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

The Zacks Rank is a proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. NOC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for NOC's full-year earnings has moved 1.21% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, NOC has returned 50.11% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Aerospace sector has returned an average of 31.27% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Northrop Grumman is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Looking more specifically, NOC belongs to the Aerospace - Defense industry, which includes 12 individual stocks and currently sits at #19 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 28.54% this year, meaning that NOC is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Aerospace sector will want to keep a close eye on NOC as it attempts to continue its solid performance.


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