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Is Rent-A-Center (RCII) Outperforming Other Consumer Discretionary Stocks This Year?

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Investors focused on the Consumer Discretionary space have likely heard of Rent-A-Center , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Consumer Discretionary peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Rent-A-Center is one of 258 companies in the Consumer Discretionary group. The Consumer Discretionary group currently sits at #11 within 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 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. RCII is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for RCII's full-year earnings has moved 30.45% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the latest available data, RCII has gained about 30.72% so far this year. In comparison, Consumer Discretionary companies have returned an average of -2.25%. As we can see, Rent-A-Center is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Breaking things down more, RCII is a member of the Consumer Services - Miscellaneous industry, which includes 11 individual companies and currently sits at #63 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 3.26% so far this year, meaning that RCII is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Consumer Discretionary sector will want to keep a close eye on RCII as it attempts to continue its solid performance.

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