Investors focused on the Consumer Staples space have likely heard of General Mills (GIS Quick QuoteGIS - Free Report) , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

General Mills is one of 166 individual stocks in the Consumer Staples sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #5 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 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. GIS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GIS's full-year earnings has moved 2.02% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, GIS has returned 29.15% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Staples group have gained about 10.93% on average. This means that General Mills is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

To break things down more, GIS belongs to the Food - Miscellaneous industry, a group that includes 40 individual companies and currently sits at #79 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 8.14% so far this year, so GIS is performing better in this area.

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