For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Morgan Stanley (MS Quick QuoteMS - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Morgan Stanley is one of 1824 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #10 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

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. MS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MS's full-year earnings has moved 4.69% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, MS has returned 1.14% so far this year. At the same time, Finance stocks have lost an average of 1.93%. As we can see, Morgan Stanley is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, MS belongs to the Financial - Investment Bank industry, which includes 46 individual stocks and currently sits at #66 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 3.73% so far this year, so MS is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors with an interest in Finance stocks should continue to track MS. The stock will be looking to continue its solid performance.