Are Transportation Stocks Lagging Ardmore Shipping (ASC) This Year?

For those looking to find strong Transportation stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Ardmore Shipping (ASC) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Ardmore Shipping is one of 138 companies in the Transportation group. The Transportation group currently sits at #5 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 proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Ardmore Shipping is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ASC's full-year earnings has moved 55.3% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, ASC has returned 347.6% so far this year. At the same time, Transportation stocks have lost an average of 11.1%. As we can see, Ardmore Shipping is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Transportation stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is International Seaways (INSW). The stock is up 190.8% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, International Seaways' consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 67.4%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

To break things down more, Ardmore Shipping belongs to the Transportation - Shipping industry, a group that includes 41 individual companies and currently sits at #93 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 34.9% so far this year, so ASC is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns. International Seaways is also part of the same industry.

Ardmore Shipping and International Seaways could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Transportation stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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