Investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Herbalife Ltd (HLF) 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.

Herbalife Ltd is a member of our Retail-Wholesale group, which includes 214 different companies and currently sits at #8 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 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. Herbalife Ltd is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for HLF's full-year earnings has moved 2.4% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, HLF has moved about 20.3% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Retail-Wholesale stocks have lost an average of 3.5%. As we can see, Herbalife Ltd is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Retail-Wholesale stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is MercadoLibre (MELI). The stock has returned 18.9% year-to-date.

In MercadoLibre's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 5.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Herbalife Ltd belongs to the Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry, a group that includes 4 individual stocks and currently sits at #4 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 20.4% so far this year, so HLF is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, MercadoLibre belongs to the Internet - Commerce industry. This 37-stock industry is currently ranked #57. The industry has moved -1.2% year to date.

Investors with an interest in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to track Herbalife Ltd and MercadoLibre. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.

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Herbalife Ltd (HLF) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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