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Is Assurant (AIZ) Stock Outpacing Its Finance Peers 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 Assurant (AIZ - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Finance sector should help us answer this question.

Assurant is one of 860 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #1 within 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 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).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AIZ's full-year earnings has moved 1.6% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that AIZ has returned about 17% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have gained about 16% on average. This means that Assurant is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another stock in the Finance sector, Banco BBVA (BBAR - Free Report) , has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 110.9%.

For Banco BBVA, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 27% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

To break things down more, Assurant belongs to the Insurance - Multi line industry, a group that includes 39 individual companies and currently sits at #50 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 13.8% so far this year, so AIZ is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Banco BBVA, however, belongs to the Banks - Foreign industry. Currently, this 66-stock industry is ranked #20. The industry has moved +12% so far this year.

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


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Assurant, Inc. (AIZ) - free report >>

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