Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Barclays (BCS) 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.
Barclays is one of 853 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #4 within the Zacks Sector Rank. 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. Barclays is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BCS' full-year earnings has moved 4% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.
Based on the latest available data, BCS has gained about 2% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 0.7% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Barclays is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.
One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Bank First Corporation (BFC). The stock is up 20.5% year-to-date.
Over the past three months, Bank First Corporation's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 35.3%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
To break things down more, Barclays belongs to the Banks - Foreign industry, a group that includes 65 individual companies and currently sits at #19 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 6.3% so far this year, so BCS is slightly underperforming its industry in this area.
In contrast, Bank First Corporation falls under the Banks - Northeast industry. Currently, this industry has 74 stocks and is ranked #42. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +11.5%.
Barclays and Bank First Corporation could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.
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Barclays PLC (BCS): Free Stock Analysis Report Bank First National Corporation (BFC): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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