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Has American Campus Communities (ACC) Outpaced Other Finance Stocks This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has American Campus Communities been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

American Campus Communities is one of 902 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #2 in 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 proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. American Campus Communities is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ACC's full-year earnings has moved 5% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that ACC has returned about 28% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have gained about 18.6% on average. This means that American Campus Communities is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another stock in the Finance sector, Crown Castle (CCI - Free Report) , has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 27%.

For Crown Castle, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 0.4% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, American Campus Communities belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust - Residential industry, a group that includes 24 individual stocks and currently sits at #34 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 45.3% so far this year, so ACC is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Crown Castle falls under the REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry. Currently, this industry has 112 stocks and is ranked #113. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +28.6%.

Investors interested in the Finance sector may want to keep a close eye on American Campus Communities and Crown Castle as they attempt to continue their solid performance.


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