For those looking to find strong Retail-Wholesale stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Amazon (AMZN) 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.
Amazon is one of 187 individual stocks in the Retail-Wholesale sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #5 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.
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. Amazon is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMZN's full-year earnings has moved 0.8% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Our latest available data shows that AMZN has returned about 8.3% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Retail-Wholesale sector has returned an average of 2.7% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Amazon is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another stock in the Retail-Wholesale sector, Brinker International (EAT), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 29.2%.
Over the past three months, Brinker International's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 0.9%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, Amazon belongs to the Internet - Commerce industry, which includes 35 individual stocks and currently sits at #170 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 2% so far this year, so AMZN is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
On the other hand, Brinker International belongs to the Retail - Restaurants industry. This 36-stock industry is currently ranked #188. The industry has moved +2.2% year to date.
Investors with an interest in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to track Amazon and Brinker International. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.
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Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).