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 Target (TGT Quick QuoteTGT - 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.

Target is one of 211 individual stocks in the Retail-Wholesale sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #1 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 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. TGT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for TGT's full-year earnings has moved 40.62% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the most recent data, TGT has returned 42.27% so far this year. In comparison, Retail-Wholesale companies have returned an average of -1.20%. This shows that Target is outperforming its peers so far this year.

To break things down more, TGT belongs to the Retail - Discount Stores industry, a group that includes 8 individual companies and currently sits at #29 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 11.77% so far this year, so TGT is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to TGT as it looks to continue its solid performance.