Investors focused on the Business Services space have likely heard of Global Payments (GPN Quick QuoteGPN - Free Report) , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Global Payments is a member of our Business Services group, which includes 189 different companies and currently sits at #4 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 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. GPN is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GPN's full-year earnings has moved 7% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

According to our latest data, GPN has moved about 4.32% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Business Services stocks have gained an average of 2.52%. This shows that Global Payments is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Looking more specifically, GPN belongs to the Financial Transaction Services industry, a group that includes 25 individual stocks and currently sits at #80 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 3.28% so far this year, so GPN is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

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