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Is E*TRADE Financial (ETFC) 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. E*TRADE Financial 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? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Finance sector should help us answer this question.

E*TRADE Financial is one of 831 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit 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. ETFC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ETFC's full-year earnings has moved 12.21% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that ETFC has returned about 26.97% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of -1.78% on a year-to-date basis. This means that E*TRADE Financial is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

To break things down more, ETFC belongs to the Financial - Investment Bank industry, a group that includes 22 individual companies and currently sits at #32 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 5.55% so far this year, so ETFC is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

ETFC will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.