Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Are Finance Stocks Lagging Amalgamated Financial (AMAL) This Year?

Read MoreHide Full Article

The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Amalgamated Financial (AMAL - 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? 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.

Amalgamated Financial is a member of our Finance group, which includes 888 different companies and currently sits at #6 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. Amalgamated Financial is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMAL's full-year earnings has moved 1.6% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

According to our latest data, AMAL has moved about 56.4% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Finance stocks have gained an average of 6.3%. This shows that Amalgamated Financial is outperforming its peers so far this year.

One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Affiliated Managers Group (AMG - Free Report) . The stock is up 39.4% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Affiliated Managers Group's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 3.2%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Amalgamated Financial is a member of the Financial - SBIC & Commercial Industry industry, which includes 37 individual companies and currently sits at #90 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 12.9% so far this year, so AMAL is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Affiliated Managers Group falls under the Financial - Investment Management industry. Currently, this industry has 36 stocks and is ranked #158. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -5.5%.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Amalgamated Financial and Affiliated Managers Group as they could maintain their solid performance.

Published in