The Consumer Staples group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Freshpet (FRPT) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Consumer Staples sector should help us answer this question.

Freshpet is one of 183 individual stocks in the Consumer Staples sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #12 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 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. Freshpet is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FRPT's full-year earnings has moved 33.6% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that FRPT has returned about 60.6% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Staples sector has returned an average of 7.3% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Freshpet is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Consumer Staples stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Philip Morris (PM). The stock has returned 27.7% year-to-date.

In Philip Morris' case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 1.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Freshpet is a member of the Food - Miscellaneous industry, which includes 46 individual companies and currently sits at #147 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 2.4% so far this year, so FRPT is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Philip Morris, however, belongs to the Tobacco industry. Currently, this 6-stock industry is ranked #107. The industry has moved +27.3% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Consumer Staples stocks should continue to pay close attention to Freshpet and Philip Morris as they could maintain their solid performance.

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