Investors focused on the Aerospace space have likely heard of AeroVironment (AVAV), but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

AeroVironment is a member of our Aerospace group, which includes 37 different companies and currently sits at #1 in 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 successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. AVAV is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AVAV's full-year earnings has moved 22.13% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that AVAV has returned about 2.53% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Aerospace companies have returned an average of 19.48%. This means that AeroVironment is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Looking more specifically, AVAV belongs to the Aerospace - Defense Equipment industry, a group that includes 21 individual stocks and currently sits at #22 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 22.96% so far this year, meaning that AVAV is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

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

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