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

Buenaventura is one of 232 companies in the Basic Materials group. The Basic Materials group currently sits at #14 within 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. Buenaventura is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BVN's full-year earnings has moved 19% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, BVN has moved about 16.5% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has returned an average of 9.2% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Buenaventura is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another Basic Materials stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Fortuna Mining (FSM). The stock has returned 14.5% year-to-date.

For Fortuna Mining, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 14.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Buenaventura belongs to the Mining - Silver industry, which includes 9 individual stocks and currently sits at #53 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 16.1% this year, meaning that BVN is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Fortuna Mining falls under the Mining - Miscellaneous industry. Currently, this industry has 59 stocks and is ranked #147. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +4.6%.

Buenaventura and Fortuna Mining could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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

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