The Consumer Discretionary group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Ralph Lauren (RL) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Consumer Discretionary peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Ralph Lauren is one of 265 companies in the Consumer Discretionary group. The Consumer Discretionary group currently sits at #7 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 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. Ralph Lauren is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RL's full-year earnings has moved 2.5% higher within the past quarter. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that RL has returned about 19.4% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Discretionary sector has returned an average of 3.2% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Ralph Lauren is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another Consumer Discretionary stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Flutter Entertainment (FLUT). The stock has returned 5.7% year-to-date.

For Flutter Entertainment, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 26.4% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, Ralph Lauren belongs to the Textile - Apparel industry, a group that includes 21 individual stocks and currently sits at #42 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 1.7% so far this year, so RL is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Flutter Entertainment falls under the Gaming industry. Currently, this industry has 39 stocks and is ranked #54. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +0.1%.

Ralph Lauren and Flutter Entertainment could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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Ralph Lauren Corporation (RL) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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