Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Franklin Templeton (BEN) 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 Finance sector should help us answer this question.
Franklin Templeton is a member of the Finance sector. This group includes 873 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #7. 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. Franklin Templeton is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BEN's full-year earnings has moved 4% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.
Our latest available data shows that BEN has returned about 37% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Finance stocks have gained an average of 5%. As we can see, Franklin Templeton is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another stock in the Finance sector, Bank of Montreal (BMO), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 33%.
Over the past three months, Bank of Montreal's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 15.5%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, Franklin Templeton belongs to the Financial - Investment Management industry, which includes 37 individual stocks and currently sits at #103 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 11.7% so far this year, so BEN is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
On the other hand, Bank of Montreal belongs to the Banks - Foreign industry. This 85-stock industry is currently ranked #60. The industry has moved +17% year to date.
Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Franklin Templeton and Bank of Montreal as they could maintain their solid performance.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).