Investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Caterpillar (CAT) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Caterpillar is a member of the Industrial Products sector. This group includes 186 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #6. 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 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. Caterpillar is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CAT's full-year earnings has moved 10% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

According to our latest data, CAT has moved about 44.5% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Industrial Products stocks have gained an average of 17.6%. As we can see, Caterpillar is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Industrial Products stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Gorman-Rupp (GRC). The stock is up 63.5% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Gorman-Rupp's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 2.7%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Caterpillar belongs to the Manufacturing - Construction and Mining industry, a group that includes 6 individual companies and currently sits at #172 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 37.7% this year, meaning that CAT is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Gorman-Rupp falls under the Manufacturing - General Industrial industry. Currently, this industry has 41 stocks and is ranked #89. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +6.6%.

Going forward, investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should continue to pay close attention to Caterpillar and Gorman-Rupp as they could maintain their solid performance.

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Caterpillar Inc. (CAT): Free Stock Analysis Report

 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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