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Is Costco Wholesale (COST) Stock Outpacing Its Retail-Wholesale Peers 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. Has Costco (COST - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? 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.

Costco is a member of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group includes 209 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #8. 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. Costco is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for COST's full-year earnings has moved 0.9% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the latest available data, COST has gained about 24.5% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Retail-Wholesale sector has returned an average of 12.8% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Costco is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another Retail-Wholesale stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Sprouts Farmers (SFM - Free Report) . The stock has returned 107.6% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Sprouts Farmers' consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 8.8%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Costco belongs to the Retail - Discount Stores industry, a group that includes 9 individual companies and currently sits at #43 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 15.8% so far this year, so COST is performing better in this area.

On the other hand, Sprouts Farmers belongs to the Food - Natural Foods Products industry. This 6-stock industry is currently ranked #101. The industry has moved +31.6% year to date.

Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to Costco and Sprouts Farmers as they could maintain their solid performance.


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