The Consumer Staples group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has United Natural Foods (UNFI) 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 Consumer Staples sector should help us answer this question.
United Natural Foods is a member of our Consumer Staples group, which includes 185 different companies and currently sits at #16 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.
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. United Natural Foods is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for UNFI's full-year earnings has moved 32% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Our latest available data shows that UNFI has returned about 21.3% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Consumer Staples companies have returned an average of 0.4%. This means that United Natural Foods is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
Another stock in the Consumer Staples sector, Universal Corp. (UVV), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 0.5%.
For Universal Corp., the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 6.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, United Natural Foods belongs to the Food - Miscellaneous industry, a group that includes 43 individual companies and currently sits at #198 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 14.1% this year, meaning that UNFI is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.
In contrast, Universal Corp. falls under the Tobacco industry. Currently, this industry has 8 stocks and is ranked #34. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +34.3%.
United Natural Foods and Universal Corp. could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.
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United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI): Free Stock Analysis Report Universal Corporation (UVV): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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