Is Methanex (MEOH) Stock Outpacing Its Basic Materials Peers This Year?

The Basic Materials group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Methanex (MEOH) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Basic Materials peers, we might be able to answer that question.Methanex is one of 248 companies in the Basic Materials group. The Basic Materials group currently sits at #3 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.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. Methanex is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MEOH's full-year earnings has moved 128.4% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.Our latest available data shows that MEOH has returned about 33.9% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has returned an average of 13.5% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Methanex is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.One other Basic Materials stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Materion (MTRN). The stock is up 121.2% year-to-date.In Materion's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 1.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).Looking more specifically, Methanex belongs to the Chemical - Diversified industry, a group that includes 29 individual stocks and currently sits at #73 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 21.6% so far this year, meaning that MEOH is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. In contrast, Materion falls under the Mining - Miscellaneous industry. Currently, this industry has 72 stocks and is ranked #149. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +24.1%.Going forward, investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to Methanex and Materion as they could maintain their solid performance.Radical New Technology Could Hand Investors Huge GainsQuantum Computing is the next technological revolution, and it could be even more advanced than AI.While some believed the technology was years away, it is already present and moving fast. Large hyperscalers, such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and even Meta and Tesla, are scrambling to integrate quantum computing into their infrastructure.Senior Stock Strategist Kevin Cook reveals 7 carefully selected stocks poised to dominate the quantum computing landscape in his report, Beyond AI: The Quantum Leap in Computing Power.Kevin was among the early experts who recognized NVIDIA's enormous potential back in 2016. Now, he has keyed in on what could be "the next big thing" in quantum computing supremacy. Today, you have a rare chance to position your portfolio at the forefront of this opportunity.See Top Quantum Stocks Now >>This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks