Is Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) Stock Outpacing Its Retail-Wholesale Peers This Year?

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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 Sprouts Farmers (SFM) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Retail-Wholesale peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Sprouts Farmers is a member of our Retail-Wholesale group, which includes 215 different companies and currently sits at #7 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 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. Sprouts Farmers is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SFM's full-year earnings has moved 4.4% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that SFM has returned about 33.9% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Retail-Wholesale stocks have gained an average of 9.6%. This means that Sprouts Farmers is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

One other Retail-Wholesale stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Target (TGT). The stock is up 20.3% year-to-date.

For Target, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 3.4% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Sprouts Farmers belongs to the Food - Natural Foods Products industry, which includes 6 individual stocks and currently sits at #13 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 10.8% so far this year, meaning that SFM is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Target, however, belongs to the Retail - Discount Stores industry. Currently, this 9-stock industry is ranked #45. The industry has moved +8.5% so far this year.

Sprouts Farmers and Target could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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