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Is Asbury Automotive Group (ABG) Stock Outpacing Its Retail-Wholesale Peers This Year?

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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 Asbury Automotive Group (ABG - 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.

Asbury Automotive Group is one of 229 individual stocks in the Retail-Wholesale sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #13 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

The Zacks Rank emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. Asbury Automotive Group is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ABG's full-year earnings has moved 6.5% higher within the past quarter. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that ABG has returned about 3.8% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Retail-Wholesale stocks have lost an average of 17.4%. This shows that Asbury Automotive Group is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Another Retail-Wholesale stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Dollar General (DG - Free Report) . The stock has returned 7.3% year-to-date.

In Dollar General's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 0.4% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Asbury Automotive Group belongs to the Automotive - Retail and Whole Sales industry, a group that includes 10 individual stocks and currently sits at #23 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 2.1% so far this year, so ABG is performing better in this area.

In contrast, Dollar General falls under the Retail - Discount Stores industry. Currently, this industry has 8 stocks and is ranked #156. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -10.6%.

Investors interested in the Retail-Wholesale sector may want to keep a close eye on Asbury Automotive Group and Dollar General as they attempt to continue their solid performance.


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