Has Citigroup (C) Outpaced Other Finance Stocks 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 one of 889 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #5 within 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 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 2.1% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock’s earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, C has returned 6.9% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 6.7% on a year-to-date basis. 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 Credicorp (BAP). The stock has returned 25.2% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Credicorp’s consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Citigroup belongs to the Financial – Investment Bank industry, a group that includes 22 individual stocks and currently sits at #66 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 2.8% this year, meaning that C is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Credicorp falls under the Banks – Foreign industry. Currently, this industry has 85 stocks and is ranked #160. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +11.1%.

Citigroup and Credicorp could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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