For those looking to find strong Retail-Wholesale stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Walmart (WMT Quick QuoteWMT - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Walmart is a member of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group includes 224 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #5. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

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. WMT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WMT's full-year earnings has moved 1.42% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, WMT has returned 17.09% so far this year. At the same time, Retail-Wholesale stocks have gained an average of 15.81%. As we can see, Walmart is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, WMT belongs to the Retail - Supermarkets industry, a group that includes 11 individual stocks and currently sits at #18 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 15.72% so far this year, meaning that WMT is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

WMT will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.