The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Goldman Sachs (GS) 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.
Goldman Sachs is a member of the Finance sector. This group includes 874 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #4. 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. Goldman Sachs is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GS' full-year earnings has moved 16.6% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Our latest available data shows that GS has returned about 18.2% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 7.2% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Goldman Sachs is outperforming its peers so far this year.
Ameriprise Financial Services (AMP) is another Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 13.3%.
Over the past three months, Ameriprise Financial Services' consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 8.5%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, Goldman Sachs belongs to the Financial - Investment Bank industry, a group that includes 22 individual companies and currently sits at #41 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 10.4% so far this year, so GS is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
In contrast, Ameriprise Financial Services falls under the Financial - Investment Management industry. Currently, this industry has 37 stocks and is ranked #61. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -3.6%.
Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Goldman Sachs and Ameriprise Financial Services as they could maintain their solid performance.
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The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).