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Has MEDIFAST INC (MED) Outpaced Other Consumer Staples Stocks This Year?

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The Consumer Staples group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. MEDIFAST INC (MED - Free Report) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of MED and the rest of the Consumer Staples group's stocks.

MEDIFAST INC is a member of our Consumer Staples group, which includes 173 different companies and currently sits at #7 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 is a proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. MED is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MED's full-year earnings has moved 40.96% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, MED has returned 52.52% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Staples sector has returned an average of -6.93% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, MEDIFAST INC is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, MED belongs to the Food - Miscellaneous industry, a group that includes 41 individual stocks and currently sits at #164 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 4.23% so far this year, so MED is performing better in this area.

MED will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.


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