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Is Federal Agricultural Mortgage (AGM) Stock Outpacing Its Finance Peers 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. Is Federal Agricultural Mortgage (AGM - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? 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.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage is one of 872 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #16 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 successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. Federal Agricultural Mortgage is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AGM's full-year earnings has moved 7.9% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that AGM has returned about 21% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of -0.9% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Federal Agricultural Mortgage is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is CME Group (CME - Free Report) . The stock is up 5.1% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for CME Group's current year EPS has increased 3.9% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Federal Agricultural Mortgage belongs to the Financial - Mortgage & Related Services industry, a group that includes 15 individual companies and currently sits at #219 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 7.1% so far this year, meaning that AGM is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

CME Group, however, belongs to the Securities and Exchanges industry. Currently, this 8-stock industry is ranked #94. The industry has moved +3.8% so far this year.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage and CME Group could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.


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