Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Is Brighthouse Financial (BHF) Stock Outpacing Its Finance Peers This Year?

Read MoreHide Full Article

For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Brighthouse Financial (BHF) been one of those stocks this year? 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.

Brighthouse Financial is a member of our Finance group, which includes 839 different companies and currently sits at #6 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. BHF is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BHF's full-year earnings has moved 2.36% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, BHF has gained about 20.75% so far this year. At the same time, Finance stocks have gained an average of 1.18%. As we can see, Brighthouse Financial is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, BHF belongs to the Insurance - Life Insurance industry, a group that includes 17 individual stocks and currently sits at #61 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 1.80% this year, meaning that BHF is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

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

Published in