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Are Consumer Discretionary Stocks Lagging Marriott International (MAR) This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Consumer Discretionary stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Marriott International (MAR - Free Report) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Marriott International is a member of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This group includes 274 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #11. 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. Marriott International is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MAR's full-year earnings has moved 4.2% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that MAR has returned about 16.6% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Discretionary sector has returned an average of 10.8% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Marriott International is outperforming its peers so far this year.

One other Consumer Discretionary stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Ralph Lauren (RL - Free Report) . The stock is up 11.1% year-to-date.

For Ralph Lauren, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 5.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Marriott International belongs to the Hotels and Motels industry, a group that includes 15 individual companies and currently sits at #52 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 16.2% so far this year, so MAR is performing better in this area.

Ralph Lauren, however, belongs to the Textile - Apparel industry. Currently, this 18-stock industry is ranked #108. The industry has moved +8.3% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to Marriott International and Ralph Lauren as they could maintain their solid performance.


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