Are Finance Stocks Lagging Franklin Resources (BEN) This Year?

Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Franklin Resources (BEN) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.Franklin Resources is one of 831 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #5 within 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 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. Franklin Resources is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BEN's full-year earnings has moved 7% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.Based on the most recent data, BEN has returned 42% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have gained about 4% on average. This means that Franklin Resources is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Popular (BPOP). The stock has returned 30.7% year-to-date.In Popular's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 5.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).Looking more specifically, Franklin Resources belongs to the Financial - Investment Management industry, which includes 37 individual stocks and currently sits at #196 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 9.3% so far this year, meaning that BEN is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Popular, however, belongs to the Banks - Southeast industry. Currently, this 53-stock industry is ranked #80. The industry has moved +8.3% so far this year.Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Franklin Resources and Popular as they could maintain their solid performance.Research Chief Names "Single Best Pick to Double"From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.This company targets millennial and Gen Z audiences, generating nearly $1 billion in revenue last quarter alone. A recent pullback makes now an ideal time to jump aboard. Of course, all our elite picks aren’t winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months.Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners UpThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks