Investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has General Mills (GIS Quick QuoteGIS - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

General Mills is a member of our Consumer Staples group, which includes 176 different companies and currently sits at #4 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. GIS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GIS's full-year earnings has moved 0.90% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that GIS has returned about 38.16% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Staples group have gained about 19.18% on average. This means that General Mills is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Looking more specifically, GIS belongs to the Food - Miscellaneous industry, a group that includes 42 individual stocks and currently sits at #148 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 14.92% so far this year, so GIS is performing better in this area.

Investors in the Consumer Staples sector will want to keep a close eye on GIS as it attempts to continue its solid performance.