For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Ameriprise Financial Services (AMP) one of those stocks right now? 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.
Ameriprise Financial Services is one of 877 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #4 within 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 proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. Ameriprise Financial Services is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMP's full-year earnings has moved 8.7% higher within the past quarter. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Our latest available data shows that AMP has returned about 14.4% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 8.7% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Ameriprise Financial Services is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is U.S. Bancorp (USB). The stock has returned 20.3% year-to-date.
For U.S. Bancorp, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 2.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, Ameriprise Financial Services belongs to the Financial - Investment Management industry, a group that includes 37 individual stocks and currently sits at #62 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 5.2% so far this year, so AMP is performing better in this area.
On the other hand, U.S. Bancorp belongs to the Banks - Major Regional industry. This 9-stock industry is currently ranked #33. The industry has moved +23.4% year to date.
Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Ameriprise Financial Services and U.S. Bancorp as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (AMP): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).