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Has Morgan Stanley (MS) Outpaced 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. Has Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? 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.

Morgan Stanley is a member of our Finance group, which includes 908 different companies and currently sits at #3 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 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. MS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MS's full-year earnings has moved 6.82% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, MS has moved about 44.53% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 19.47% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Morgan Stanley is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Breaking things down more, MS is a member of the Financial - Investment Bank industry, which includes 19 individual companies and currently sits at #113 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 34.87% 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.

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