The Retail-Wholesale group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Kroger (KR) 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.

Kroger is one of 210 companies in the Retail-Wholesale group. The Retail-Wholesale group currently sits at #9 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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. Kroger is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for KR's full-year earnings has moved 0% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, KR has returned 13% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Retail-Wholesale group have lost about 5.8% on average. As we can see, Kroger is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another stock in the Retail-Wholesale sector, Zalando (ZLNDY), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 10.9%.

In Zalando's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 9.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Kroger belongs to the Retail - Supermarkets industry, a group that includes 9 individual companies and currently sits at #68 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 5.4% so far this year, so KR is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Zalando falls under the Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry. Currently, this industry has 42 stocks and is ranked #141. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -28.6%.

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

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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