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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. Has Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF - 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.

Abercrombie & Fitch is a member of our Retail-Wholesale group, which includes 183 different companies and currently sits at #10 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

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. Abercrombie & Fitch is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ANF's full-year earnings has moved 7.7% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that ANF has returned about 30.6% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Retail-Wholesale group have lost about 0.8% on average. This means that Abercrombie & Fitch is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another stock in the Retail-Wholesale sector, Genesco (GCO - Free Report) , has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 52%.

The consensus estimate for Genesco's current year EPS has increased 4.4% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Breaking things down more, Abercrombie & Fitch is a member of the Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry, which includes 38 individual companies and currently sits at #159 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 9% so far this year, so ANF is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns. Genesco is also part of the same industry.

Investors interested in the Retail-Wholesale sector may want to keep a close eye on Abercrombie & Fitch and Genesco as they attempt to continue their solid performance.

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