The Retail-Wholesale group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has AutoZone (AZO) 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.
AutoZone is a member of our Retail-Wholesale group, which includes 232 different companies and currently sits at #6 in 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 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. AutoZone is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AZO's full-year earnings has moved 4.1% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Our latest available data shows that AZO has returned about 3.7% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Retail-Wholesale group have lost about 11.5% on average. As we can see, AutoZone is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another stock in the Retail-Wholesale sector, Target (TGT), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 3.4%.
In Target's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 9.9% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Looking more specifically, AutoZone belongs to the Automotive - Retail and Wholesale - Parts industry, which includes 4 individual stocks and currently sits at #197 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 6.5% this year, meaning that AZO is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.
Target, however, belongs to the Retail - Discount Stores industry. Currently, this 8-stock industry is ranked #61. The industry has moved -0.4% so far this year.
Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to AutoZone and Target as they could maintain their solid performance.
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AutoZone, Inc. (AZO): Free Stock Analysis Report
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