Is AngloGold Ashanti (AU) Stock Outpacing Its Basic Materials Peers This Year?
The Basic Materials group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. AngloGold Ashanti (AU) 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 AU and the rest of the Basic Materials group's stocks.
AngloGold Ashanti is one of 237 companies in the Basic Materials group. The Basic Materials group currently sits at #10 within 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 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. AU is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AU's full-year earnings has moved 52.71% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.
According to our latest data, AU has moved about 3.35% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Basic Materials stocks have gained an average of 16.21%. This means that AngloGold Ashanti is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.
Breaking things down more, AU is a member of the Mining - Gold industry, which includes 32 individual companies and currently sits at #60 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 5.43% so far this year, meaning that AU is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.
Investors in the Basic Materials sector will want to keep a close eye on AU as it attempts to continue its solid performance.
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