Are Finance Stocks Lagging Assured Guaranty (AGO) 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. Is Assured Guaranty (AGO) 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.
Assured Guaranty is one of 856 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit 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 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. Assured Guaranty is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AGO's full-year earnings has moved 23.7% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.
According to our latest data, AGO has moved about 21.4% on a year-to-date basis. In comparison, Finance companies have returned an average of 5.3%. As we can see, Assured Guaranty is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is CleanSpark (CLSK). The stock is up 58% year-to-date.
Over the past three months, CleanSpark's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 56.9%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, Assured Guaranty belongs to the Insurance - Multi line industry, which includes 36 individual stocks and currently sits at #38 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 9.5% so far this year, so AGO is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
CleanSpark, however, belongs to the Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry. Currently, this 68-stock industry is ranked #142. The industry has moved +3.6% so far this year.
Assured Guaranty and CleanSpark could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.
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Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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