Investors focused on the Aerospace space have likely heard of Northrop Grumman (NOC), but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Aerospace peers, we might be able to answer that question.Northrop Grumman is a member of the Aerospace sector. This group includes 34 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 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. NOC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NOC's full-year earnings has moved 3.86% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.Our latest available data shows that NOC has returned about 39.54% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Aerospace sector has returned an average of 32.79% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Northrop Grumman is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.Looking more specifically, NOC belongs to the Aerospace - Defense industry, which includes 12 individual stocks and currently sits at #49 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 28.91% so far this year, so NOC is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.Going forward, investors interested in Aerospace stocks should continue to pay close attention to NOC as it looks to continue its solid performance.Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here.