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

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The Retail-Wholesale group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Retail-Wholesale sector should help us answer this question.

Abercrombie & Fitch is one of 221 companies in the Retail-Wholesale group. The Retail-Wholesale group currently sits at #8 within 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 system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Abercrombie & Fitch is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ANF's full-year earnings has moved 29.5% higher within the past quarter. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that ANF has returned about 243.3% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Retail-Wholesale group have gained about 22% on average. This shows that Abercrombie & Fitch is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Expedia (EXPE - 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 66.1%.

For Expedia, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 2% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Abercrombie & Fitch belongs to the Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry, a group that includes 43 individual companies and currently sits at #146 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 15.5% this year, meaning that ANF is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, Expedia belongs to the Internet - Commerce industry. This 42-stock industry is currently ranked #25. The industry has moved +49% year to date.

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


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