For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Morgan Stanley (MS) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Finance peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Morgan Stanley is a member of the Finance sector. This group includes 874 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #4. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

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. Morgan Stanley is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MS' full-year earnings has moved 7.9% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, MS has gained about 20.6% so far this year. At the same time, Finance stocks have gained an average of 7.8%. This means that Morgan Stanley is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Andersen (ANDG). The stock is up 92.8% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for Andersen's current year EPS has increased 2.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Morgan Stanley belongs to the Financial - Investment Bank industry, a group that includes 22 individual companies and currently sits at #34 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 11% so far this year, so MS is performing better in this area.

On the other hand, Andersen belongs to the Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry. This 115-stock industry is currently ranked #101. The industry has moved -6.2% year to date.

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

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Morgan Stanley (MS): Free Stock Analysis Report

 

Andersen Group Inc. (ANDG): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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