Investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Advance Auto Parts (AAP) 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? 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.

Advance Auto Parts is one of 207 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 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 model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. Advance Auto Parts is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AAP's full-year earnings has moved 1.6% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, AAP has returned 4% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Retail-Wholesale group have gained about 1.3% on average. This means that Advance Auto Parts is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

One other Retail-Wholesale stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Maplebear (CART). The stock is up 13.5% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Maplebear's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 6.7%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Advance Auto Parts belongs to the Automotive - Retail and Wholesale - Parts industry, a group that includes 7 individual companies and currently sits at #42 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 12.4% so far this year, so AAP is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Maplebear falls under the Internet - Commerce industry. Currently, this industry has 37 stocks and is ranked #66. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +1.4%.

Advance Auto Parts and Maplebear could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

Story Continues

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

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