Is American States Water (AWR) Stock Outpacing Its Utilities Peers This Year?

The Utilities group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is American States Water (AWR) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

American States Water is a member of our Utilities group, which includes 110 different companies and currently sits at #11 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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. American States Water is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AWR's full-year earnings has moved 6.6% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that AWR has returned about 6.6% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Utilities group have gained about 5.5% on average. As we can see, American States Water is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another stock in the Utilities sector, Koninklijke KPN NV (KKPNF), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 10.9%.

The consensus estimate for Koninklijke KPN NV's current year EPS has increased 7.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, American States Water belongs to the Utility - Water Supply industry, a group that includes 11 individual companies and currently sits at #163 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 1.7% so far this year, so AWR is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Koninklijke KPN NV, however, belongs to the Diversified Communication Services industry. Currently, this 17-stock industry is ranked #162. The industry has moved +2.7% so far this year.

Investors with an interest in Utilities stocks should continue to track American States Water and Koninklijke KPN NV. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.

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

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