The Finance group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Barclays (BCS) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Barclays is a member of our Finance group, which includes 859 different companies and currently sits at #3 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 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. Barclays is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BCS' full-year earnings has moved 37% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, BCS has returned 18.4% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have gained about 3.3% on average. As we can see, Barclays is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Banco Do Brasil SA (BDORY). The stock has returned 30.9% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for Banco Do Brasil SA's current year EPS has increased 9.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, Barclays belongs to the Banks - Foreign industry, which includes 66 individual stocks and currently sits at #28 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 11% this year, meaning that BCS is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. Banco Do Brasil SA is also part of the same industry.

Investors with an interest in Finance stocks should continue to track Barclays and Banco Do Brasil SA. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.

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Barclays PLC (BCS):Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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