For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has The Bank of East Asia Ltd. (BKEAY) been one of those stocks this year? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Finance sector should help us answer this question.

The Bank of East Asia Ltd. is one of 868 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #1 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 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. The Bank of East Asia Ltd. is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BKEAY's full-year earnings has moved 7.7% 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, BKEAY has returned 8.4% so far this year. At the same time, Finance stocks have lost an average of 0.6%. As we can see, The Bank of East Asia Ltd. is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

$Ellington Financial Inc.(EFC-B)$ (EFC) is another Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 8.5%.

In Ellington Financial Inc.'s case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 1.2% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, The Bank of East Asia Ltd. belongs to the Banks - Foreign industry, a group that includes 68 individual companies and currently sits at #41 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 8.1% so far this year, so BKEAY is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Ellington Financial Inc. falls under the Financial - Mortgage & Related Services industry. Currently, this industry has 18 stocks and is ranked #73. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +6.2%.

Investors with an interest in Finance stocks should continue to track The Bank of East Asia Ltd. and Ellington Financial Inc. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.

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

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