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Is Axis Capital Holdings (AXS) Stock Outpacing Its Finance Peers This Year?

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Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Axis Capital (AXS - Free Report) 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? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Axis Capital is one of 892 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #7 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 is a proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. Axis Capital is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AXS' full-year earnings has moved 6.2% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, AXS has moved about 5.6% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of -10% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Axis Capital is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Cincinnati Financial (CINF - Free Report) is another Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 10.9%.

For Cincinnati Financial, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 3.6% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Axis Capital is a member of the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry, which includes 40 individual companies and currently sits at #106 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 4.4% so far this year, so AXS is performing better in this area. Cincinnati Financial is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Axis Capital and Cincinnati Financial as they could maintain their solid performance.


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