For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Bank of America (BAC Quick QuoteBAC - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Bank of America is a member of our Finance group, which includes 899 different companies and currently sits at #2 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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. BAC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BAC's full-year earnings has moved 26.27% 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, BAC has returned 38.60% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 18.05% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Bank of America is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Looking more specifically, BAC belongs to the Banks - Major Regional industry, a group that includes 15 individual stocks and currently sits at #41 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 33.64% so far this year, so BAC is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

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