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Is BancFirst (BANF) Outperforming Other Finance Stocks 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 BancFirst (BANF - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

BancFirst is a member of our Finance group, which includes 837 different companies and currently sits at #5 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 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 0.7% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, BANF has returned 7.3% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of -2.7% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, BancFirst is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Invesco Mortgage Capital (IVR - Free Report) . The stock is up 0.1% year-to-date.

In Invesco Mortgage Capital's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 2.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, BancFirst belongs to the Banks - Southwest industry, a group that includes 19 individual stocks and currently sits at #49 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 5.8% so far this year, so BANF is performing better in this area.

Invesco Mortgage Capital, however, belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust industry. Currently, this 27-stock industry is ranked #146. The industry has moved -1.9% so far this year.

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

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