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Has Darden Restaurants (DRI) Outpaced Other Retail-Wholesale Stocks 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 Darden Restaurants (DRI - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Retail-Wholesale peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Darden Restaurants is one of 221 individual stocks in the Retail-Wholesale sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #9 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 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. Darden Restaurants is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for DRI's full-year earnings has moved 1% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that DRI has returned about 20.6% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Retail-Wholesale group have gained about 16.5% on average. This means that Darden Restaurants is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another Retail-Wholesale stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Fastenal (FAST - Free Report) . The stock has returned 24.1% year-to-date.

For Fastenal, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Darden Restaurants belongs to the Retail - Restaurants industry, a group that includes 41 individual stocks and currently sits at #25 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 12.3% so far this year, so DRI is performing better in this area.

In contrast, Fastenal falls under the Building Products - Retail industry. Currently, this industry has 8 stocks and is ranked #21. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +10.5%.

Investors interested in the Retail-Wholesale sector may want to keep a close eye on Darden Restaurants and Fastenal as they attempt to continue their solid performance.


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