Are Finance Stocks Lagging AIA (AAGIY) This Year?

The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has AIA (AAGIY) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

AIA is a member of our Finance group, which includes 848 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 is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. AIA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AAGIY's full-year earnings has moved 1% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

According to our latest data, AAGIY has moved about 4.2% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have lost about 3.4% on average. As we can see, AIA is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Bank of Montreal (BMO). The stock is up 9.5% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Bank of Montreal's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 5.3%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, AIA is a member of the Insurance - Life Insurance industry, which includes 16 individual companies and currently sits at #150 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 5.8% so far this year, so AAGIY is performing better in this area.

In contrast, Bank of Montreal falls under the Banks - Foreign industry. Currently, this industry has 65 stocks and is ranked #29. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -2%.

AIA and Bank of Montreal could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.