For those looking to find strong Basic Materials stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has AngloGold Ashanti (AU) been one of those stocks this year? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Basic Materials sector should help us answer this question.

AngloGold Ashanti is a member of our Basic Materials group, which includes 232 different companies and currently sits at #15 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. AngloGold Ashanti is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AU's full-year earnings has moved 39.5% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that AU has returned about 39.7% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Basic Materials companies have returned an average of 6.5%. As we can see, AngloGold Ashanti is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Basic Materials stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Novozymes A/S (NVZMY). The stock is up 6.8% year-to-date.

For Novozymes A/S, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 0.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, AngloGold Ashanti belongs to the Mining - Gold industry, a group that includes 41 individual companies and currently sits at #162 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 28.4% this year, meaning that AU is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Novozymes A/S, however, belongs to the Chemical - Specialty industry. Currently, this 32-stock industry is ranked #173. The industry has moved -3.3% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to AngloGold Ashanti and Novozymes A/S 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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