Investors focused on the Finance space have likely heard of Realty Income (O Quick QuoteO - Free Report) , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Realty Income is a member of our Finance group, which includes 857 different companies and currently sits at #9 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for O's full-year earnings has moved 0.80% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, O has gained about 9.61% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 13.24% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Realty Income is outperforming its peers so far this year.

To break things down more, O belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust - Retail industry, a group that includes 28 individual companies and currently sits at #153 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 13.72% this year, meaning that O is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to O as it looks to continue its solid performance.