For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Discover Financial Services (DFS Quick QuoteDFS - 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.

Discover Financial Services 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 considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. DFS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DFS's full-year earnings has moved 193.40% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, DFS has returned 0.64% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have lost about 3.57% on average. As we can see, Discover Financial Services is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, DFS belongs to the Financial - Consumer Loans industry, a group that includes 22 individual companies and currently sits at #37 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 0.90% so far this year, meaning that DFS is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

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