Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has First BanCorp. (FBP Quick QuoteFBP - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

First BanCorp. is a member of our Finance group, which includes 856 different companies and currently sits at #9 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. FBP is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FBP's full-year earnings has moved 3.38% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, FBP has returned 28.26% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 12.07% on a year-to-date basis. This means that First BanCorp. is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

To break things down more, FBP belongs to the Banks - Southeast industry, a group that includes 60 individual companies and currently sits at #106 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 17.33% this year, meaning that FBP is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to FBP as it looks to continue its solid performance.