Is Brown & Brown (BRO) Stock Outpacing Its Finance Peers This Year?

BRO BRSP

Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Brown & Brown (BRO - Free Report) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? 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.

Brown & Brown is one of 844 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #9 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 is a proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Brown & Brown is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BRO's full-year earnings has moved 2.6% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, BRO has returned 31.6% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 12.7% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Brown & Brown is outperforming its peers so far this year.

BrightSpire (BRSP - Free Report) is another Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 15.3%.

The consensus estimate for BrightSpire's current year EPS has increased 6.9% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

To break things down more, Brown & Brown belongs to the Insurance - Brokerage industry, a group that includes 8 individual companies and currently sits at #12 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 18.2% so far this year, so BRO is performing better in this area.

On the other hand, BrightSpire belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust industry. This 30-stock industry is currently ranked #215. The industry has moved +7.1% year to date.

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

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