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Is Imperial Tobacco Group (IMBBY) Stock Outpacing Its Consumer Staples Peers This Year?

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The Consumer Staples group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Imperial Tobacco Group PLC (IMBBY - Free Report) 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? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Imperial Tobacco Group PLC is one of 178 companies in the Consumer Staples group. The Consumer Staples 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. Imperial Tobacco Group PLC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for IMBBY's full-year earnings has moved 1% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the latest available data, IMBBY has gained about 23.6% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Staples group have gained about 5.1% on average. This means that Imperial Tobacco Group PLC is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

L'Oreal SA (LRLCY - Free Report) is another Consumer Staples stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 19.9%.

In L'Oreal SA's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 1.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Imperial Tobacco Group PLC belongs to the Tobacco industry, a group that includes 7 individual companies and currently sits at #44 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 40.5% so far this year, meaning that IMBBY is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

L'Oreal SA, however, belongs to the Consumer Products - Staples industry. Currently, this 35-stock industry is ranked #92. The industry has moved -4.7% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to Imperial Tobacco Group PLC and L'Oreal SA as they could maintain their solid performance.

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