Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP) 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.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is one of 890 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #6 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 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. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BIP's full-year earnings has moved 2.1% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.
Based on the latest available data, BIP has gained about 5.1% so far this year. In comparison, Finance companies have returned an average of 2.2%. As we can see, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another stock in the Finance sector, American Assets Trust (AAT), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 13.8%.
In American Assets Trust's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 0.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Breaking things down more, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is a member of the REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry, which includes 90 individual companies and currently sits at #101 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 3.6% so far this year, meaning that BIP is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.
American Assets Trust, however, belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust - Retail industry. Currently, this 20-stock industry is ranked #167. The industry has moved +9.4% so far this year.
Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and American Assets Trust as they could maintain their solid performance.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).