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Are Retail-Wholesale Stocks Lagging Costco Wholesale (COST) 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. Is Costco (COST - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Costco is a member of our Retail-Wholesale group, which includes 212 different companies and currently sits at #2 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

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. 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 1.5% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, COST has moved about 16% on a year-to-date basis. In comparison, Retail-Wholesale companies have returned an average of 8.4%. This means that Costco is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another Retail-Wholesale stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Brinker International (EAT - Free Report) . The stock has returned 22% year-to-date.

For Brinker International, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 50.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, Costco belongs to the Retail - Discount Stores industry, a group that includes 9 individual stocks and currently sits at #30 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 8.4% so far this year, so COST is performing better in this area.

On the other hand, Brinker International belongs to the Retail - Restaurants industry. This 39-stock industry is currently ranked #66. The industry has moved +5.9% year to date.

Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to Costco and Brinker International as they could maintain their solid performance.


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