The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has The Progressive (PGR Quick QuotePGR - 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.

The Progressive is a member of our Finance group, which includes 888 different companies and currently sits at #14 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 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. PGR is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PGR's full-year earnings has moved 16.13% higher within the past quarter. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the latest available data, PGR has gained about 14.60% so far this year. At the same time, Finance stocks have lost an average of 25.21%. As we can see, The Progressive is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, PGR belongs to the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry, a group that includes 46 individual companies and currently sits at #134 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 18.37% so far this year, so PGR is performing better in this area.

Investors in the Finance sector will want to keep a close eye on PGR as it attempts to continue its solid performance.