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

IREN Limited is a member of our Oils-Energy group, which includes 247 different companies and currently sits at #7 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 proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. IREN Limited is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for IREN's full-year earnings has moved 28.6% higher within the past quarter. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the latest available data, IREN has gained about 32.5% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Oils-Energy group have gained about 4.1% on average. This means that IREN Limited is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another stock in the Oils-Energy sector, NextDecade (NEXT), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 5.3%.

Over the past three months, NextDecade's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 0.5%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

To break things down more, IREN Limited belongs to the Alternative Energy - Other industry, a group that includes 47 individual companies and currently sits at #85 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 14.9% so far this year, so IREN is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

NextDecade, however, belongs to the Oil and Gas - Production Pipeline - MLB industry. Currently, this 6-stock industry is ranked #18. The industry has moved +3.1% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Oils-Energy stocks should continue to pay close attention to IREN Limited and NextDecade as they could maintain their solid performance.

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