The Oils-Energy group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Forum Energy Technologies (FET) 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? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Oils-Energy sector should help us answer this question.

Forum Energy Technologies is a member of our Oils-Energy group, which includes 247 different companies and currently sits at #8 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 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. Forum Energy Technologies is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FET's full-year earnings has moved 17.7% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the latest available data, FET has gained about 32.6% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Oils-Energy group have gained about 5.1% on average. This shows that Forum Energy Technologies is outperforming its peers so far this year.

One other Oils-Energy stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Nextracker (NXT). The stock is up 23.8% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Nextracker's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 20.4%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Breaking things down more, Forum Energy Technologies is a member of the Oil and Gas - Mechanical and and Equipment industry, which includes 10 individual companies and currently sits at #196 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 3.4% so far this year, so FET is performing better in this area.

In contrast, Nextracker falls under the Solar industry. Currently, this industry has 16 stocks and is ranked #72. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -14.5%.

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

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

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