Investors focused on the Finance space have likely heard of Legg Mason , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? 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.

Legg Mason is a member of our Finance group, which includes 839 different companies and currently sits at #4 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 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. LM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for LM's full-year earnings has moved 3.67% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, LM has returned 38.46% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have lost about 12.62% on average. As we can see, Legg Mason is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, LM belongs to the Financial - Investment Management industry, which includes 48 individual stocks and currently sits at #27 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 10.69% this year, meaning that LM is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

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