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

Investors focused on the Aerospace space have likely heard of Northrop Grumman (NOC), but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of NOC and the rest of the Aerospace group's stocks.

Northrop Grumman is a member of our Aerospace group, which includes 34 different companies and currently sits at #6 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. NOC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for NOC's full-year earnings has moved 3.26% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that NOC has returned about 40.87% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Aerospace group have gained about 26.54% on average. As we can see, Northrop Grumman is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, NOC belongs to the Aerospace - Defense industry, a group that includes 12 individual companies and currently sits at #153 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 21.30% so far this year, so NOC is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors with an interest in Aerospace stocks should continue to track NOC. The stock will be looking to continue its solid performance.

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