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Has First Citizens BancShares (FCNCA) Outpaced Other Finance Stocks This Year?

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Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has First Citizens BancShares (FCNCA - 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.

First Citizens BancShares is one of 884 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #3 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 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. First Citizens BancShares is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FCNCA's full-year earnings has moved 20.7% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that FCNCA has returned about 3.4% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of -14.2% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, First Citizens BancShares is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Hanmi Financial (HAFC - Free Report) . The stock has returned 1.2% year-to-date.

In Hanmi Financial's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 11.4% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, First Citizens BancShares belongs to the Banks - Southeast industry, a group that includes 64 individual stocks and currently sits at #39 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 4.7% so far this year, so FCNCA is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, Hanmi Financial belongs to the Banks - West industry. This 34-stock industry is currently ranked #45. The industry has moved -23.2% year to date.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to First Citizens BancShares and Hanmi Financial as they could maintain their solid performance.


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First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (FCNCA) - free report >>

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