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Is BancFirst (BANF) Outperforming 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. BancFirst (BANF - 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.

BancFirst is one of 884 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #1 within 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 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. BancFirst is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BANF's full-year earnings has moved 3.6% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that BANF has returned about 29.7% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Finance companies have returned an average of -11.8%. This means that BancFirst is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Banner (BANR - 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 8.4%.

In Banner's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, BancFirst belongs to the Banks - Southwest industry, a group that includes 19 individual companies and currently sits at #76 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 2.2% this year, meaning that BANF is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, Banner belongs to the Financial - Savings and Loan industry. This 31-stock industry is currently ranked #66. The industry has moved -8.2% year to date.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to BancFirst and Banner as they could maintain their solid performance.


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