The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR Quick QuoteIIPR - Free Report) 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.

Innovative Industrial Properties is a member of the Finance sector. This group includes 895 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #4. 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 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. IIPR is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for IIPR's full-year earnings has moved 2.39% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, IIPR has gained about 105.98% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of -4.78% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Innovative Industrial Properties is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, IIPR belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry, a group that includes 119 individual companies and currently sits at #230 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 1.63% so far this year, meaning that IIPR is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

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