Sector
A sector is a broad grouping of companies that operate in similar lines of business, used to organize the market into categories with roughly comparable economics. Energy, healthcare, financial services, and technology are common examples. Each sector tends to carry its own typical range for margins, growth, and debt levels, shaped by how the underlying businesses are, how much they have, and how exposed they are to regulation or the broader .
A company's sector is the starting point for judging whether one of its numbers looks strong or weak, since comparing a bank's margin against a retailer's, or a utility's debt load against a software company's, isn't comparing two versions of the same question. Sectors are made up of narrower industries underneath them, each with its own more specific set of businesses.