Investors focused on the Consumer Staples space have likely heard of MEDIFAST INC (MED Quick QuoteMED - 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.

MEDIFAST INC is one of 174 companies in the Consumer Staples group. The Consumer Staples group currently sits at #9 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 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. MED is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MED's full-year earnings has moved 4.29% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, MED has returned 84.58% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Staples sector has returned an average of 2.41% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, MEDIFAST INC is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, MED belongs to the Food - Miscellaneous industry, a group that includes 44 individual stocks and currently sits at #188 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 3.79% so far this year, so MED is performing better in this area.

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