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Is Associated BancCorp (ASB) 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 Associated Banc-Corp (ASB - 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.

Associated Banc-Corp is one of 890 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #7 within 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 system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Associated Banc-Corp is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ASB's full-year earnings has moved 1.3% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, ASB has gained about 12.7% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have gained about 3.7% on average. This means that Associated Banc-Corp is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

BGC Group (BGC - 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 36.6%.

Over the past three months, BGC Group's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 0.4%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Associated Banc-Corp belongs to the Banks - Midwest industry, which includes 26 individual stocks and currently sits at #86 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 1.7% so far this year, meaning that ASB is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, BGC Group falls under the Financial - Investment Bank industry. Currently, this industry has 22 stocks and is ranked #55. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +2%.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Associated Banc-Corp and BGC Group as they could maintain their solid performance.

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