The Utilities group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has ONEOK (OKE Quick QuoteOKE - 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.

ONEOK is one of 110 individual stocks in the Utilities sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #12 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. OKE is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for OKE's full-year earnings has moved 3.25% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, OKE has returned 39.29% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Utilities sector has returned an average of 2.20% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that ONEOK is outperforming its peers so far this year.

To break things down more, OKE belongs to the Utility - Gas Distribution industry, a group that includes 17 individual companies and currently sits at #31 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 15.89% so far this year, so OKE is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

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