The Consumer Staples group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Carlsberg AS (CABGY) 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 Consumer Staples sector should help us answer this question.

Carlsberg AS is a member of the Consumer Staples sector. This group includes 178 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #11. 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 system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Carlsberg AS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CABGY's full-year earnings has moved 1.7% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the latest available data, CABGY has gained about 23.7% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Staples group have gained about 4.5% on average. This shows that Carlsberg AS is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Another stock in the Consumer Staples sector, Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (RBGLY), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 24%.

Over the past three months, Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 2.5%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Carlsberg AS belongs to the Beverages - Alcohol industry, a group that includes 15 individual companies and currently sits at #178 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 1.5% so far this year, so CABGY is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, however, belongs to the Soap and Cleaning Materials industry. Currently, this 1-stock industry is ranked #2.

Carlsberg AS and Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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