Has Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) Outpaced 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. Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) 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? 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.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is a member of our Retail-Wholesale group, which includes 217 different companies and currently sits at #4 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. CMG is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CMG's full-year earnings has moved 2.23% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the latest available data, CMG has gained about 5.10% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Retail-Wholesale group have gained about 2.14% on average. This means that Chipotle Mexican Grill is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Breaking things down more, CMG is a member of the Retail - Restaurants industry, which includes 43 individual companies and currently sits at #71 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 5.77% so far this year, so CMG is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

CMG will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.

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