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Is Casey's General Stores (CASY) Stock Outpacing Its Retail-Wholesale Peers 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. Casey's General Stores (CASY - 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.

Casey's General Stores is one of 186 companies in the Retail-Wholesale group. The Retail-Wholesale group currently sits at #14 within 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 successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. Casey's General Stores is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CASY's full-year earnings has moved 6.4% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

According to our latest data, CASY has moved about 58.8% on a year-to-date basis. In comparison, Retail-Wholesale companies have returned an average of 6.2%. As we can see, Casey's General Stores 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 Murphy USA (MUSA - Free Report) . The stock is up 42.8% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Murphy USA's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 27.1%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Casey's General Stores is a member of the Retail - Convenience Stores industry, which includes 2 individual companies and currently sits at #12 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 54.5% so far this year, meaning that CASY is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Murphy USA is also part of the same industry.

Investors interested in the Retail-Wholesale sector may want to keep a close eye on Casey's General Stores and Murphy USA as they attempt to continue their solid performance.

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