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Is Jefferies Financial Group (JEF) Outperforming Other Finance Stocks This Year?

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The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Jefferies Financial Group (JEF - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Finance peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Jefferies Financial Group is one of 887 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #2 within 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. JEF is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for JEF's full-year earnings has moved 24.26% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, JEF has gained about 8.74% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 6.09% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Jefferies Financial Group is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, JEF belongs to the Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry, a group that includes 45 individual companies and currently sits at #121 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 5.83% so far this year, so JEF is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

JEF will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.


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