For those looking to find strong Consumer Discretionary stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is lululemon athletica (LULU) 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 Discretionary sector should help us answer this question.

lululemon athletica is one of 246 individual stocks in the Consumer Discretionary sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #9 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 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. LULU is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LULU's full-year earnings has moved 6.25% higher within the past quarter. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that LULU has returned about 37.75% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Discretionary group have gained about 17.51% on average. This means that lululemon athletica is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

To break things down more, LULU belongs to the Textile - Apparel industry, a group that includes 21 individual companies and currently sits at #95 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 24.41% this year, meaning that LULU is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Consumer Discretionary sector will want to keep a close eye on LULU as it attempts to continue its solid performance.

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