Investors focused on the Retail-Wholesale space have likely heard of Darden Restaurants (DRI Quick QuoteDRI - Free Report) , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Retail-Wholesale sector should help us answer this question.

Darden Restaurants is one of 213 individual stocks in the Retail-Wholesale sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #8 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 successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. DRI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for DRI's full-year earnings has moved 1.78% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that DRI has returned about 21.28% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Retail-Wholesale sector has returned an average of 18.50% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Darden Restaurants is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Looking more specifically, DRI belongs to the Retail - Restaurants industry, a group that includes 49 individual stocks and currently sits at #196 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 3.19% so far this year, so DRI is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Retail-Wholesale sector will want to keep a close eye on DRI as it attempts to continue its solid performance.