Is American Equity Investment Life Holding (AEL) Stock Outpacing Its Finance Peers This Year?
For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. American Equity Investment (AEL) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
American Equity Investment is one of 848 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #10 within 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 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. American Equity Investment is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AEL's full-year earnings has moved 0% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Our latest available data shows that AEL has returned about 17.8% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Finance companies have returned an average of 4%. As we can see, American Equity Investment is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is AerCap (AER). The stock has returned 12.9% year-to-date.
The consensus estimate for AerCap's current year EPS has increased 5.2% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Breaking things down more, American Equity Investment is a member of the Insurance - Life Insurance industry, which includes 13 individual companies and currently sits at #181 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 10.2% so far this year, so AEL is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
AerCap, however, belongs to the Financial - Leasing Companies industry. Currently, this 3-stock industry is ranked #4. The industry has moved +12.4% so far this year.
Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to American Equity Investment and AerCap as they could maintain their solid performance.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (AEL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Aercap Holdings N.V. (AER) : Free Stock Analysis Report
