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The Construction group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (GLDD) 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 Construction sector should help us answer this question.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is a member of our Construction group, which includes 90 different companies and currently sits at #11 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. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GLDD's full-year earnings has moved 5.1% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, GLDD has returned 1.2% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Construction group have lost about 1.4% on average. As we can see, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Construction stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Janus International Group, Inc. (JBI). The stock has returned 15.7% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Janus International Group, Inc.'s consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 150%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is a member of the Building Products - Heavy Construction industry, which includes 10 individual companies and currently sits at #1 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 1.3% so far this year, meaning that GLDD is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Janus International Group, Inc. falls under the Building Products - Miscellaneous industry. Currently, this industry has 30 stocks and is ranked #94. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -5.9%.

Going forward, investors interested in Construction stocks should continue to pay close attention to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock and Janus International Group, Inc. 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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