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

Gerdau 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 sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

The Zacks Rank is a proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Gerdau is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GGB's full-year earnings has moved 9.3% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that GGB has returned about 15.2% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has returned an average of 12.7% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Gerdau is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Basic Materials stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Anglo American (NGLOY). The stock has returned 26.4% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for Anglo American's current year EPS has increased 54.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Gerdau belongs to the Steel – Producers industry, a group that includes 17 individual stocks and currently sits at #38 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 34.4% so far this year, meaning that GGB is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Anglo American falls under the Mining – Miscellaneous industry. Currently, this industry has 72 stocks and is ranked #104. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +22.3%.

Gerdau and Anglo American 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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