Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Assurant (AIZ) 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.
Assurant is one of 873 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #7 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. Assurant is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AIZ's full-year earnings has moved 5.9% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Based on the latest available data, AIZ has gained about 12.6% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have gained about 5.2% on average. As we can see, Assurant is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Hamilton Insurance (HG). The stock has returned 20.9% year-to-date.
Over the past three months, Hamilton Insurance's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 19.1%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, Assurant belongs to the Insurance - Multi line industry, a group that includes 46 individual companies and currently sits at #75 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 1.4% so far this year, so AIZ is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns. Hamilton Insurance is also part of the same industry.
Assurant and Hamilton Insurance could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).