Investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has BJ's Restaurants (BJRI) been one of those stocks this year? 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.

BJ's Restaurants is one of 187 individual stocks in the Retail-Wholesale sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #6 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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. BJ's Restaurants is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BJRI's full-year earnings has moved 7.3% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that BJRI has returned about 63% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Retail-Wholesale sector has returned an average of 2.6% on a year-to-date basis. This means that BJ's Restaurants is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another Retail-Wholesale stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Amazon (AMZN). The stock has returned 12.7% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for Amazon's current year EPS has increased 4.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, BJ's Restaurants belongs to the Retail - Restaurants industry, which includes 36 individual stocks and currently sits at #160 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 2.5% so far this year, so BJRI is performing better in this area.

On the other hand, Amazon belongs to the Internet - Commerce industry. This 35-stock industry is currently ranked #155. The industry has moved +7.1% year to date.

BJ's Restaurants and Amazon could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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

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