Are Finance Stocks Lagging Citigroup (C) This Year?

For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Citigroup (C) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Citigroup is a member of the Finance sector. This group includes 869 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #2. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. Citigroup is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for C's full-year earnings has moved 3.5% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

According to our latest data, C has moved about 37.6% on a year-to-date basis. In comparison, Finance companies have returned an average of 12.6%. This shows that Citigroup is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Acadian Asset Management (AAMI) is another Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 92.3%.

In Acadian Asset Management's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 30.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

To break things down more, Citigroup belongs to the Financial - Investment Bank industry, a group that includes 21 individual companies and currently sits at #11 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 24.6% this year, meaning that C is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Acadian Asset Management falls under the Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry. Currently, this industry has 93 stocks and is ranked #55. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +4.9%.

Citigroup and Acadian Asset Management 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).

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