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Is Potbelly (PBPB) Outperforming Other Retail-Wholesale Stocks This Year?

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Investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Potbelly (PBPB - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? 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.

Potbelly is a member of our Retail-Wholesale group, which includes 202 different companies and currently sits at #10 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. Potbelly is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PBPB's full-year earnings has moved 13% 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 PBPB has returned about 38.6% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Retail-Wholesale group have gained about 8.3% on average. As we can see, Potbelly is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Retail-Wholesale stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Red Robin (RRGB - Free Report) . The stock is up 18% year-to-date.

In Red Robin's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 40.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Potbelly belongs to the Retail - Restaurants industry, a group that includes 39 individual companies and currently sits at #197 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 3.5% so far this year, so PBPB is performing better in this area. Red Robin is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to Potbelly and Red Robin as they could maintain their solid performance.


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Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (RRGB) - free report >>

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