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Is American Campus Communities (ACC) Stock Outpacing Its Finance Peers This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is American Campus Communities one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

American Campus Communities is one of 904 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #2 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 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. American Campus Communities is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ACC's full-year earnings has moved 4.7% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that ACC has returned about 21% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Finance stocks have gained an average of 18.5%. This shows that American Campus Communities is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Arbor Realty Trust (ABR - Free Report) . The stock has returned 23.8% year-to-date.

In Arbor Realty Trust's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 6.6% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, American Campus Communities belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust - Residential industry, a group that includes 24 individual companies and currently sits at #40 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 41.2% so far this year, so ACC is slightly underperforming its industry in this area.

On the other hand, Arbor Realty Trust belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust industry. This 35-stock industry is currently ranked #108. The industry has moved +15.6% year to date.

American Campus Communities and Arbor Realty Trust could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.


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