Is MetLife (MET) Outperforming Other Finance Stocks This Year?

MET BPOP

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

MetLife is one of 859 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #2 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 system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. MetLife is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MET's full-year earnings has moved 0.2% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

According to our latest data, MET has moved about 19.8% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Finance stocks have gained an average of 16%. This shows that MetLife is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Another stock in the Finance sector, Popular (BPOP - Free Report) , has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 21.5%.

In Popular's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 6.6% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, MetLife belongs to the Insurance - Multi line industry, which includes 39 individual stocks and currently sits at #36 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 13.2% this year, meaning that MET is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Popular, however, belongs to the Banks - Southeast industry. Currently, this 55-stock industry is ranked #27. The industry has moved +14.2% so far this year.

MetLife and Popular could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.