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Is Barclays (BCS) 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. Is Barclays (BCS - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Barclays is a member of our Finance group, which includes 872 different companies and currently sits at #9 in 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. Barclays is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BCS' full-year earnings has moved 11.6% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

According to our latest data, BCS has moved about 8.9% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have lost about 10.4% on average. As we can see, Barclays is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

BNP Paribas SA (BNPQY - 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 10.6%.

Over the past three months, BNP Paribas SA's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 11.3%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

To break things down more, Barclays belongs to the Banks - Foreign industry, a group that includes 66 individual companies and currently sits at #22 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 1.9% so far this year, meaning that BCS is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. BNP Paribas SA is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Barclays and BNP Paribas SA as they could maintain their solid performance.


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