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Are Retail-Wholesale Stocks Lagging Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) This Year?

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The Retail-Wholesale group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Abercrombie & Fitch is one of 212 companies in the Retail-Wholesale group. The Retail-Wholesale group currently sits at #8 within 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 is a proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Abercrombie & Fitch is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ANF's full-year earnings has moved 9.8% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that ANF has returned about 67.6% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Retail-Wholesale stocks have gained an average of 20.1%. This means that Abercrombie & Fitch is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

One other Retail-Wholesale stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Build-A-Bear (BBW - Free Report) . The stock is up 59.8% year-to-date.

For Build-A-Bear, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 2.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Abercrombie & Fitch belongs to the Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry, a group that includes 41 individual companies and currently sits at #42 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 7.2% so far this year, so ANF is performing better in this area.

On the other hand, Build-A-Bear belongs to the Retail - Miscellaneous industry. This 17-stock industry is currently ranked #143. The industry has moved -4.4% year to date.

Investors interested in the Retail-Wholesale sector may want to keep a close eye on Abercrombie & Fitch and Build-A-Bear as they attempt to continue their solid performance.


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