Investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Itochu Corp. (ITOCY) 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.
Itochu Corp. is a member of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group includes 183 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #6. 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. Itochu Corp. is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ITOCY's full-year earnings has moved 7.1% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Based on the latest available data, ITOCY has gained about 10.3% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Retail-Wholesale sector has returned an average of -0.6% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Itochu Corp. is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Kohl's (KSS) is another Retail-Wholesale stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 3.6%.
In Kohl's' case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 53.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Looking more specifically, Itochu Corp. belongs to the Retail - Miscellaneous industry, a group that includes 14 individual stocks and currently sits at #75 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 16.6% so far this year, meaning that ITOCY is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.
Kohl's, however, belongs to the Retail - Regional Department Stores industry. Currently, this 4-stock industry is ranked #18. The industry has moved +6.2% so far this year.
Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to Itochu Corp. and Kohl's as they could maintain their solid performance.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).