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Are Retail-Wholesale Stocks Lagging Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Retail-Wholesale stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF - 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? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Abercrombie & Fitch is a member of our Retail-Wholesale group, which includes 221 different companies and currently sits at #7 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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. Abercrombie & Fitch is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ANF's full-year earnings has moved 112.8% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, ANF has returned 196% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Retail-Wholesale sector has returned an average of 17.9% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Abercrombie & Fitch is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Wayfair (W - Free Report) is another Retail-Wholesale stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 40.8%.

In Wayfair's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 9.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Abercrombie & Fitch belongs to the Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry, which includes 43 individual stocks and currently sits at #153 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 6.8% this year, meaning that ANF is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, Wayfair belongs to the Internet - Commerce industry. This 42-stock industry is currently ranked #77. The industry has moved +44.3% year to date.

Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to Abercrombie & Fitch and Wayfair as they could maintain their solid performance.


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