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Is Mastercard (MA) Stock Outpacing Its Business Services Peers This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Business Services stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Mastercard (MA - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Business Services peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Mastercard is a member of the Business Services sector. This group includes 197 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #5. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

The Zacks Rank emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. MA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MA's full-year earnings has moved 1.04% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that MA has returned about 37.58% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Business Services companies have returned an average of 12.42%. As we can see, Mastercard is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, MA belongs to the Financial Transaction Services industry, a group that includes 25 individual companies and currently sits at #63 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 20.93% so far this year, so MA is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

MA will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested in Business Services stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.


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