The Consumer Discretionary group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is American Public Education (APEI) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

American Public Education is a member of our Consumer Discretionary group, which includes 255 different companies and currently sits at #11 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

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. American Public Education is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for APEI's full-year earnings has moved 2.6% higher within the past quarter. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, APEI has returned 36.2% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Discretionary group have gained about 5.1% on average. This means that American Public Education is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Playa Hotels & Resorts (PLYA) is another Consumer Discretionary stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 6.3%.

In Playa Hotels & Resorts' case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 11% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, American Public Education belongs to the Schools industry, a group that includes 17 individual stocks and currently sits at #31 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 10.6% so far this year, so APEI is performing better in this area.

Playa Hotels & Resorts, however, belongs to the Hotels and Motels industry. Currently, this 13-stock industry is ranked #81. The industry has moved -1.4% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to American Public Education and Playa Hotels & Resorts as they could maintain their solid performance.

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American Public Education, Inc. (APEI):Free Stock Analysis Report

Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V. (PLYA):Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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