Investors focused on the Finance space have likely heard of Morgan Stanley (MS Quick QuoteMS - 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.

Morgan Stanley is one of 894 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #6 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 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. 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 7.94% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that MS has returned about 32.71% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Finance stocks have lost an average of 2.38%. As we can see, Morgan Stanley is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, MS belongs to the Financial - Investment Bank industry, a group that includes 17 individual companies and currently sits at #28 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 22.20% so far this year, meaning that MS is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Finance sector will want to keep a close eye on MS as it attempts to continue its solid performance.