Investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Lancaster Colony (LANC) 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? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Lancaster Colony is one of 180 individual stocks in the Consumer Staples sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #14 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 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. Lancaster Colony is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LANC's full-year earnings has moved 1.1% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

According to our latest data, LANC has moved about 7.8% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Consumer Staples stocks have lost an average of 0.5%. This means that Lancaster Colony is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

One other Consumer Staples stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is RH (RH). The stock is up 2.2% year-to-date.

In RH's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 9.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Lancaster Colony belongs to the Food - Miscellaneous industry, a group that includes 43 individual companies and currently sits at #178 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 4.7% so far this year, so LANC is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, RH falls under the Consumer Products - Staples industry. Currently, this industry has 30 stocks and is ranked #155. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -1.4%.

Lancaster Colony and RH could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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