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 Rite Aid been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Rite Aid is one of 204 individual stocks in the Retail-Wholesale sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #8 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 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. RAD is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for RAD's full-year earnings has moved 1,084.61% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the latest available data, RAD has gained about 48.71% so far this year. At the same time, Retail-Wholesale stocks have gained an average of 3.08%. This means that Rite Aid is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Looking more specifically, RAD belongs to the Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry, which includes 4 individual stocks and currently sits at #21 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 10.44% so far this year, so RAD is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

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