Is Air Liquide (AIQUY) Stock Outpacing Its Basic Materials Peers This Year?

For those looking to find strong Basic Materials stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Air Liquide (AIQUY) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.Air Liquide is one of 248 companies in the Basic Materials group. The Basic Materials group currently sits at #13 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. Air Liquide is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AIQUY's full-year earnings has moved 2.7% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.Our latest available data shows that AIQUY has returned about 14.2% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Basic Materials group have gained about 13.8% on average. This means that Air Liquide is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.One other Basic Materials stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is BASF SE (BASFY). The stock is up 24.2% year-to-date.The consensus estimate for BASF SE's current year EPS has increased 4.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).To break things down more, Air Liquide belongs to the Chemical - Diversified industry, a group that includes 29 individual companies and currently sits at #82 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 36% so far this year, so AIQUY is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns. BASF SE is also part of the same industry.Going forward, investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to Air Liquide and BASF SE as they could maintain their solid performance.Zacks' Research Chief Names "Stock Most Likely to Double"Our team of experts has just released the 5 stocks with the greatest probability of gaining +100% or more in the coming months. Of those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian highlights the one stock set to climb highest.This top pick is a little-known satellite-based communications firm. Space is projected to become a trillion dollar industry, and this company's customer base is growing fast. Analysts have forecasted a major revenue breakout in 2025. Of course, all our elite picks aren't winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks' Stocks Set to Double like Hims & Hers Health, which shot up +209%.Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners UpThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks