Investors focused on the Basic Materials space have likely heard of Sibanye Gold , 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.

Sibanye Gold is a member of our Basic Materials group, which includes 243 different companies and currently sits at #15 in 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 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. SBGL is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SBGL's full-year earnings has moved 193.18% higher within the past quarter. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that SBGL has returned about 2.72% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has returned an average of -8.05% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Sibanye Gold is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

To break things down more, SBGL belongs to the Mining - Gold industry, a group that includes 34 individual companies and currently sits at #162 in the Zacks Industry Rank.

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