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Are Retail-Wholesale Stocks Lagging Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) 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 Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF - 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.

Abercrombie & Fitch is one of 215 individual stocks in the Retail-Wholesale sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #8 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 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. Abercrombie & Fitch is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ANF's full-year earnings has moved 19% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the latest available data, ANF has gained about 30.9% so far this year. In comparison, Retail-Wholesale companies have returned an average of 6.3%. This shows that Abercrombie & Fitch is outperforming its peers so far this year.

AutoZone (AZO - Free Report) is another Retail-Wholesale stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 13.9%.

The consensus estimate for AutoZone's current year EPS has increased 1.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Abercrombie & Fitch belongs to the Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry, a group that includes 42 individual companies and currently sits at #93 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 5.5% so far this year, so ANF is performing better in this area.

AutoZone, however, belongs to the Automotive - Retail and Wholesale - Parts industry. Currently, this 5-stock industry is ranked #30. The industry has moved +10.3% so far this year.

Abercrombie & Fitch and AutoZone 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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