Are Finance Stocks Lagging Brown & Brown (BRO) 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 Brown & Brown (BRO) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Brown & Brown is one of 857 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #11 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. Brown & Brown is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BRO's full-year earnings has moved 6% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.
According to our latest data, BRO has moved about 11% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 0.9% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Brown & Brown is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.
Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Assurant (AIZ). The stock has returned 4.1% year-to-date.
Over the past three months, Assurant's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 0.9%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, Brown & Brown belongs to the Insurance - Brokerage industry, a group that includes 9 individual companies and currently sits at #63 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 5.2% so far this year, so BRO is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
Assurant, however, belongs to the Insurance - Multi line industry. Currently, this 36-stock industry is ranked #104. The industry has moved +3.2% so far this year.
Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Brown & Brown and Assurant as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Assurant, Inc. (AIZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report
