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

Federal Signal is a member of the Conglomerates sector. This group includes 21 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #3. 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 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. Federal Signal is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FSS' full-year earnings has moved 1.8% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that FSS has returned about 1.3% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Conglomerates group have gained about 0.5% on average. As we can see, Federal Signal is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Conglomerates stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Hitachi Ltd. (HTHIY). The stock has returned 8.6% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Hitachi Ltd.'s consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 8.2%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, Federal Signal belongs to the Diversified Operations industry, which includes 21 individual stocks and currently sits at #69 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 0.5% so far this year, so FSS is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns. Hitachi Ltd. is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Conglomerates stocks should continue to pay close attention to Federal Signal and Hitachi Ltd. as they could maintain their solid performance.

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Federal Signal Corporation (FSS):Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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