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Has Assurant (AIZ) Outpaced Other Finance Stocks This Year?

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Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Assurant (AIZ - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Assurant is a member of our Finance group, which includes 894 different companies and currently sits at #5 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. Assurant is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AIZ's full-year earnings has moved 8.3% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the latest available data, AIZ has gained about 21% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of -10.9% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Assurant is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Cigna (CI - Free Report) . The stock is up 16.2% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for Cigna's current year EPS has increased 0.2% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Assurant is a member of the Insurance - Multi line industry, which includes 34 individual companies and currently sits at #208 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 0.2% so far this year, meaning that AIZ is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Cigna is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Assurant and Cigna as they could maintain their solid performance.


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