Has CME Group (CME) Outpaced Other Finance Stocks This Year?

The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. CME Group (CME) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of CME and the rest of the Finance group's stocks.

CME Group is a member of our Finance group, which includes 831 different companies and currently sits at #10 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. CME is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CME's full-year earnings has moved 10.82% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that CME has returned about 7.74% since the start of the calendar year. In comparison, Finance companies have returned an average of -1.50%. This means that CME Group is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Looking more specifically, CME belongs to the Securities and Exchanges industry, which includes 5 individual stocks and currently sits at #65 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 4.42% so far this year, meaning that CME is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

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

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