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Is American Equity Investment Life Holding (AEL) Outperforming 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. American Equity Investment 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 Equity Investment is one of 892 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #2 in 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. American Equity Investment is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AEL's full-year earnings has moved 1.3% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, AEL has moved about 1.3% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of -19% on a year-to-date basis. This means that American Equity Investment is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Amalgamated Financial (AMAL - Free Report) . The stock has returned 35.5% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for Amalgamated Financial's current year EPS has increased 4.9% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, American Equity Investment belongs to the Insurance - Life Insurance industry, a group that includes 14 individual companies and currently sits at #157 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 16.2% so far this year, so AEL is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Amalgamated Financial, however, belongs to the Financial - SBIC & Commercial Industry industry. Currently, this 36-stock industry is ranked #21. The industry has moved -13.3% so far this year.

Investors interested in the Finance sector may want to keep a close eye on American Equity Investment and Amalgamated Financial as they attempt to continue their solid performance.


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