The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Federal Agricultural Mortgage (AGM) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Federal Agricultural Mortgage is one of 831 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #6 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.
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. Federal Agricultural Mortgage is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AGM's full-year earnings has moved 1.9% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.
Based on the latest available data, AGM has gained about 2.5% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 0.4% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Federal Agricultural Mortgage is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is MSCI (MSCI). The stock is up 6.1% year-to-date.
Over the past three months, MSCI's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 0.9%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, Federal Agricultural Mortgage belongs to the Financial - Mortgage & Related Services industry, which includes 11 individual stocks and currently sits at #182 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 37.7% so far this year, so AGM is performing better in this area.
On the other hand, MSCI belongs to the Financial - Investment Management industry. This 37-stock industry is currently ranked #197. The industry has moved -11.1% year to date.
Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Federal Agricultural Mortgage and MSCI as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (AGM): Free Stock Analysis Report
MSCI Inc (MSCI): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).