Has American Financial Group (AFG) Outpaced Other Finance Stocks This Year?

The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is American Financial Group (AFG) 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.

American Financial Group is a member of our Finance group, which includes 891 different companies and currently sits at #6 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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. American Financial Group is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AFG's full-year earnings has moved 9.8% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that AFG has returned about 0.2% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Finance stocks have lost an average of 15.7%. This shows that American Financial Group is outperforming its peers so far this year.

One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is EPR Properties (EPR). The stock is up 0.2% year-to-date.

For EPR Properties, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 5.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, American Financial Group is a member of the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry, which includes 40 individual companies and currently sits at #148 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 5% this year, meaning that AFG is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

EPR Properties, however, belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust - Retail industry. Currently, this 25-stock industry is ranked #86. The industry has moved -18.5% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to American Financial Group and EPR Properties as they could maintain their solid performance.

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