Are Finance Stocks Lagging Royal Bank Of Canada (RY) This Year?

Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Royal Bank (RY) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Royal Bank is a member of the Finance sector. This group includes 857 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #4. 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. Royal Bank is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for RY's full-year earnings has moved 1.8% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, RY has returned 5.6% so far this year. In comparison, Finance companies have returned an average of 4.6%. As we can see, Royal Bank is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another stock in the Finance sector, Acadian Asset Management (AAMI), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 20.2%.

Over the past three months, Acadian Asset Management's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 2.9%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Breaking things down more, Royal Bank is a member of the Banks - Foreign industry, which includes 66 individual companies and currently sits at #16 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 21.6% so far this year, meaning that RY is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

Acadian Asset Management, however, belongs to the Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry. Currently, this 88-stock industry is ranked #101. The industry has moved -3.7% so far this year.

Royal Bank 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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