Yahoo Finance Is Fastenal (FAST) Outperforming Other Retail-Wholesale Stocks This Year?
The Retail-Wholesale group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Fastenal (FAST) one of those stocks right now? 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.
Fastenal is one of 219 companies in the Retail-Wholesale group. The Retail-Wholesale group currently sits at #6 within 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 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. Fastenal is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FAST's full-year earnings has moved 2.3% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Our latest available data shows that FAST has returned about 16.7% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Retail-Wholesale sector has returned an average of 11% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Fastenal is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
Another Retail-Wholesale stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Hennes & Mauritz AB (HNNMY). The stock has returned 31.4% year-to-date.
For Hennes & Mauritz AB, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 7.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Breaking things down more, Fastenal is a member of the Building Products - Retail industry, which includes 8 individual companies and currently sits at #14 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 1.4% so far this year, so FAST is performing better in this area.
In contrast, Hennes & Mauritz AB falls under the Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry. Currently, this industry has 44 stocks and is ranked #197. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -4.8%.
Going forward, investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to Fastenal and Hennes & Mauritz AB as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Fastenal Company (FAST) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Hennes & Mauritz AB (HNNMY) : Free Stock Analysis Report
