Investors focused on the Transportation space have likely heard of USA Truck , 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.

USA Truck is one of 140 companies in the Transportation group. The Transportation group currently sits at #12 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 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. USAK is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for USAK's full-year earnings has moved 26.95% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, USAK has gained about 67.97% so far this year. At the same time, Transportation stocks have gained an average of 5.41%. This shows that USA Truck is outperforming its peers so far this year.

To break things down more, USAK belongs to the Transportation - Truck industry, a group that includes 15 individual companies and currently sits at #38 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 14.12% this year, meaning that USAK is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Transportation sector will want to keep a close eye on USAK as it attempts to continue its solid performance.