For those looking to find strong Retail-Wholesale stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Costco (COST) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Costco is a member of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group includes 195 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #12. 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. Costco is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for COST's full-year earnings has moved 1.3% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.
According to our latest data, COST has moved about 16.9% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Retail-Wholesale sector has returned an average of -0.8% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Costco is outperforming its peers so far this year.
Williams-Sonoma (WSM) is another Retail-Wholesale stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 11.8%.
In Williams-Sonoma's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 0.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Breaking things down more, Costco is a member of the Retail - Discount Stores industry, which includes 7 individual companies and currently sits at #88 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 12.7% so far this year, so COST is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
Williams-Sonoma, however, belongs to the Retail - Home Furnishings industry. Currently, this 10-stock industry is ranked #193. The industry has moved +6.5% so far this year.
Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to Costco and Williams-Sonoma as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST): Free Stock Analysis Report Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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