Are Finance Stocks Lagging Ameriprise Financial (AMP) This Year?

The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Ameriprise Financial Services (AMP) one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Finance peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Ameriprise Financial Services is one of 873 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #7 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

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. Ameriprise Financial Services is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMP's full-year earnings has moved 8.5% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, AMP has returned 13.5% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 7.6% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Ameriprise Financial Services is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Goldman Sachs (GS). The stock is up 17.9% year-to-date.

In Goldman Sachs' case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 16.6% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

To break things down more, Ameriprise Financial Services belongs to the Financial - Investment Management industry, a group that includes 37 individual companies and currently sits at #103 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 6% this year, meaning that AMP is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Goldman Sachs falls under the Financial - Investment Bank industry. Currently, this industry has 22 stocks and is ranked #39. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +11.4%.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Ameriprise Financial Services and Goldman Sachs as they could maintain their solid performance.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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