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Is Mastercard (MA) Outperforming Other Business Services Stocks This Year?

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The Business Services group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is MasterCard (MA - 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.

MasterCard is a member of our Business Services group, which includes 335 different companies and currently sits at #6 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. MasterCard is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MA's full-year earnings has moved 0.8% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the most recent data, MA has returned 7.2% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Business Services sector has returned an average of 3.5% on a year-to-date basis. This means that MasterCard is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

One other Business Services stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is VerifyMe, Inc. (VRME - Free Report) . The stock is up 52.6% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, VerifyMe, Inc.'s consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 50%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, MasterCard belongs to the Financial Transaction Services industry, which includes 37 individual stocks and currently sits at #84 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 8.9% so far this year, so MA is slightly underperforming its industry in this area.

On the other hand, VerifyMe, Inc. belongs to the Technology Services industry. This 195-stock industry is currently ranked #150. The industry has moved +4.2% year to date.

Going forward, investors interested in Business Services stocks should continue to pay close attention to MasterCard and VerifyMe, Inc. as they could maintain their solid performance.


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