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Are Retail-Wholesale Stocks Lagging Fastenal (FAST) This Year?

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The Retail-Wholesale group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Fastenal (FAST - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Retail-Wholesale sector should help us answer this question.

Fastenal is one of 221 individual stocks in the Retail-Wholesale sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #5 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 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. Fastenal is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FAST's full-year earnings has moved 0.7% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that FAST has returned about 27.3% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Retail-Wholesale group have gained about 13.2% on average. This shows that Fastenal is outperforming its peers so far this year.

One other Retail-Wholesale stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Shake Shack (SHAK - Free Report) . The stock is up 31.4% year-to-date.

For Shake Shack, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 53.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Fastenal belongs to the Building Products - Retail industry, which includes 8 individual stocks and currently sits at #26 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 0.7% so far this year, meaning that FAST is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Shake Shack, however, belongs to the Retail - Restaurants industry. Currently, this 42-stock industry is ranked #79. The industry has moved -4% so far this year.

Fastenal and Shake Shack could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.


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