Is Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria (BBVA) Outperforming Other Finance Stocks This Year?

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The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Banco Bilbao (BBVA) 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.

Banco Bilbao is a member of our Finance group, which includes 851 different companies and currently sits at #12 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. Banco Bilbao is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BBVA's full-year earnings has moved 9.2% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the latest available data, BBVA has gained about 26.8% so far this year. At the same time, Finance stocks have gained an average of 7.7%. This means that Banco Bilbao is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Brown & Brown (BRO). The stock has returned 28.4% year-to-date.

For Brown & Brown, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 6.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Banco Bilbao is a member of the Banks - Foreign industry, which includes 64 individual companies and currently sits at #45 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 13.8% so far this year, so BBVA is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Brown & Brown, however, belongs to the Insurance - Brokerage industry. Currently, this 9-stock industry is ranked #45. The industry has moved +14.7% so far this year.

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

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