Is Waste Management (WM) Outperforming Other Business Services Stocks This Year?

The Business Services group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Waste Management (WM) 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? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of WM and the rest of the Business Services group's stocks.

Waste Management is one of 194 individual stocks in the Business Services sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #4 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

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. WM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WM's full-year earnings has moved 0.56% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

According to our latest data, WM has moved about 27.95% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Business Services sector has returned an average of 27.73% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Waste Management is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Looking more specifically, WM belongs to the Waste Removal Services industry, a group that includes 12 individual stocks and currently sits at #67 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 21.60% so far this year, so WM is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors with an interest in Business Services stocks should continue to track WM. The stock will be looking to continue its solid performance.

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