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Is Rent-A-Center (RCII) Stock Outpacing Its Consumer Discretionary Peers This Year?

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Investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Rent-A-Center one of those stocks right now? 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 251 companies in the Consumer Discretionary group. The Consumer Discretionary group currently sits at #7 within 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. RCII is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for RCII's full-year earnings has moved 44.67% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, RCII has returned 8.77% so far this year. In comparison, Consumer Discretionary companies have returned an average of 7.54%. This means that Rent-A-Center is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

To break things down more, RCII belongs to the Consumer Services - Miscellaneous industry, a group that includes 11 individual companies and currently sits at #46 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 5.99% this year, meaning that RCII is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to RCII as it looks to continue its solid performance.

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