Are Finance Stocks Lagging Citigroup (C) This Year?

The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Citigroup (C) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Finance sector should help us answer this question.

Citigroup is one of 835 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #4 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

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. Citigroup is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for C's full-year earnings has moved 4.1% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that C has returned about 12.9% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have lost about 0.3% on average. As we can see, Citigroup is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Brookfield Corp. (BN). The stock has returned 1.2% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Brookfield Corp.'s consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1.8%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Citigroup is a member of the Financial - Investment Bank industry, which includes 20 individual companies and currently sits at #164 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 0.7% this year, meaning that C is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Brookfield Corp., however, belongs to the Real Estate - Operations industry. Currently, this 25-stock industry is ranked #75. The industry has moved +0.3% so far this year.

Investors with an interest in Finance stocks should continue to track Citigroup and Brookfield Corp.. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.

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

Zacks Investment Research

Source Zacks-com