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 New Gold (NGD) been one of those stocks this year? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Basic Materials sector should help us answer this question.

New Gold is a member of our Basic Materials group, which includes 235 different companies and currently sits at #13 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. New Gold is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NGD's full-year earnings has moved 7.8% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that NGD has returned about 73.3% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Basic Materials companies have returned an average of -5.1%. This shows that New Gold is outperforming its peers so far this year.

NexGen Energy (NXE) is another Basic Materials stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 5.4%.

Over the past three months, NexGen Energy's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 43.2%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, New Gold is a member of the Mining - Gold industry, which includes 38 individual companies and currently sits at #35 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 10.4% so far this year, so NGD is performing better in this area.

On the other hand, NexGen Energy belongs to the Mining - Miscellaneous industry. This 60-stock industry is currently ranked #175. The industry has moved -17.2% year to date.

Investors with an interest in Basic Materials stocks should continue to track New Gold and NexGen Energy. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.

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