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Has Fastenal (FAST) Outpaced Other Retail-Wholesale Stocks This Year?

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Investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Fastenal (FAST - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Retail-Wholesale peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Fastenal is a member of our Retail-Wholesale group, which includes 207 different companies and currently sits at #3 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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. FAST is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FAST's full-year earnings has moved 15.69% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that FAST has returned about 23.87% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Retail-Wholesale sector has returned an average of 22.38% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Fastenal is outperforming its peers so far this year.

To break things down more, FAST belongs to the Building Products - Retail industry, a group that includes 10 individual companies and currently sits at #55 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 21.56% so far this year, so FAST is performing better in this area.

Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to FAST as it looks to continue its solid performance.


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