The Industrial Products group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Esco Technologies (ESE) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Industrial Products sector should help us answer this question.

Esco Technologies is a member of our Industrial Products group, which includes 200 different companies and currently sits at #10 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

The Zacks Rank emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. Esco Technologies is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ESE's full-year earnings has moved 18.8% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that ESE has returned about 19.8% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Industrial Products sector has returned an average of -4.2% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Esco Technologies is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another stock in the Industrial Products sector, EnerSys (ENS), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 2.5%.

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

Breaking things down more, Esco Technologies is a member of the Manufacturing - Electronics industry, which includes 16 individual companies and currently sits at #52 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 7.8% so far this year, so ESE is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns. EnerSys is also part of the same industry.

Investors interested in the Industrial Products sector may want to keep a close eye on Esco Technologies and EnerSys as they attempt to continue their solid performance.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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