Investors interested in Utilities stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Spark Energy been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Spark Energy is one of 119 companies in the Utilities group. The Utilities group currently sits at #10 within 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 system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. SPKE is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SPKE's full-year earnings has moved 20.83% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that SPKE has returned about 0.22% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Utilities companies have returned an average of -0.99%. This shows that Spark Energy is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Breaking things down more, SPKE is a member of the Utility - Electric Power industry, which includes 65 individual companies and currently sits at #168 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 1.03% so far this year, so SPKE is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

SPKE will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested in Utilities stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.