Has Union Pacific (UNP) Outpaced Other Transportation Stocks This Year?

Investors focused on the Transportation space have likely heard of Union Pacific (UNP), but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? A quick glance at the company’s year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Transportation sector should help us answer this question.

Union Pacific is a member of our Transportation group, which includes 150 different companies and currently sits at #1 in 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 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. UNP is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for UNP’s full-year earnings has moved 1.55% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock’s earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the latest available data, UNP has gained about 16.34% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Transportation group have gained about 10.40% on average. As we can see, Union Pacific is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, UNP belongs to the Transportation – Rail industry, a group that includes 10 individual companies and currently sits at #104 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 13.02% this year, meaning that UNP is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Going forward, investors interested in Transportation stocks should continue to pay close attention to UNP as it looks to continue its solid performance.

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