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Is Allegiance Bancshares (ABTX) 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. Allegiance Bancshares is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? 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.

Allegiance Bancshares is one of 899 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 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. Allegiance Bancshares is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ABTX's full-year earnings has moved 6.3% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the latest available data, ABTX has gained about 1% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 0.2% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Allegiance Bancshares is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another stock in the Finance sector, BankFinancial (BFIN - Free Report) , has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 1.5%.

For BankFinancial, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 4.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Allegiance Bancshares belongs to the Banks - Southeast industry, a group that includes 66 individual companies and currently sits at #30 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 2.4% so far this year, so ABTX is slightly underperforming its industry in this area.

On the other hand, BankFinancial belongs to the Financial - Savings and Loan industry. This 36-stock industry is currently ranked #92. The industry has moved +5.7% year to date.

Investors with an interest in Finance stocks should continue to track Allegiance Bancshares and BankFinancial. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.


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