Investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM Quick QuoteSFM - 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.

Sprouts Farmers Market is a member of our Retail-Wholesale group, which includes 206 different companies and currently sits at #3 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. SFM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SFM's full-year earnings has moved 5.17% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that SFM has returned about 0.65% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Retail-Wholesale stocks have lost an average of 1.48%. This means that Sprouts Farmers Market is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Looking more specifically, SFM belongs to the Food - Natural Foods Products industry, which includes 7 individual stocks and currently sits at #133 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 0.99% so far this year, meaning that SFM is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Retail-Wholesale sector will want to keep a close eye on SFM as it attempts to continue its solid performance.