Is Costco Wholesale (COST) Stock Outpacing Its Retail-Wholesale Peers This Year?
The Retail-Wholesale group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Costco Wholesale (COST) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of COST and the rest of the Retail-Wholesale group's stocks.
Costco Wholesale is one of 208 individual stocks in the Retail-Wholesale sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #3 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. COST 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 4.62% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Based on the most recent data, COST has returned 1.01% so far this year. At the same time, Retail-Wholesale stocks have lost an average of 1.12%. This means that Costco Wholesale is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
Looking more specifically, COST belongs to the Retail - Discount Stores industry, a group that includes 8 individual stocks and currently sits at #37 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 5.31% so far this year, meaning that COST is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.
Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to COST as it looks to continue its solid performance.
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