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

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The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. American Campus Communities is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

American Campus Communities is one of 892 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #7 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

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. American Campus Communities is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ACC's full-year earnings has moved 0.9% 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 13.3% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Finance stocks have lost an average of 9.7%. This means that American Campus Communities is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

LTC Properties (LTC - Free Report) is another Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 11.6%.

Over the past three months, LTC Properties' consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 2.5%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, American Campus Communities belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust - Residential industry, which includes 26 individual stocks and currently sits at #71 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 18% so far this year, so ACC is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, LTC Properties belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry. This 108-stock industry is currently ranked #156. The industry has moved -13.3% year to date.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to American Campus Communities and LTC Properties as they could maintain their solid performance.


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