The Retail-Wholesale group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Amazon (AMZN) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Amazon is one of 187 companies in the Retail-Wholesale group. The Retail-Wholesale group currently sits at #10 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 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 #1 (Strong Buy).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMZN's full-year earnings has moved 4.4% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Based on the latest available data, AMZN has gained about 20.2% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Retail-Wholesale group have gained about 7.8% on average. This means that Amazon is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.
Another stock in the Retail-Wholesale sector, BJ's Restaurants (BJRI), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 71%.
The consensus estimate for BJ's Restaurants' current year EPS has increased 6.4% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Breaking things down more, Amazon is a member of the Internet - Commerce industry, which includes 35 individual companies and currently sits at #165 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 11.7% so far this year, so AMZN is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
BJ's Restaurants, however, belongs to the Retail - Restaurants industry. Currently, this 36-stock industry is ranked #190. The industry has moved +1.2% so far this year.
Investors interested in the Retail-Wholesale sector may want to keep a close eye on Amazon and BJ's Restaurants as they attempt to continue their solid performance.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).