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Is Assurant (AIZ) 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. Is Assurant (AIZ - 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.

Assurant is a member of the Finance sector. This group includes 855 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #8. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

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. Assurant is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AIZ's full-year earnings has moved 5.5% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that AIZ has returned about 11.7% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 8.3% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Assurant is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Brown & Brown (BRO - 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 23.1%.

The consensus estimate for Brown & Brown's current year EPS has increased 8.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Assurant belongs to the Insurance - Multi line industry, which includes 36 individual stocks and currently sits at #43 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 12.1% this year, meaning that AIZ is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Brown & Brown falls under the Insurance - Brokerage industry. Currently, this industry has 9 stocks and is ranked #50. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +13.2%.

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


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