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

Morgan Stanley is one of 871 companies in the Finance group. The Finance group currently sits at #1 within 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. Morgan Stanley is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MS' full-year earnings has moved 4.2% 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, MS has returned 36.8% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 25.1% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Morgan Stanley is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Another Finance stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Banc of California (BANC). The stock has returned 26.5% year-to-date.

In Banc of California's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 14.1% 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 15 individual companies and currently sits at #44 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 42.9% so far this year, so MS is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Banc of California falls under the Banks - Southwest industry. Currently, this industry has 19 stocks and is ranked #14. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +29.7%.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Morgan Stanley and Banc of California as they could maintain their solid performance.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

Morgan Stanley (MS) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Banc of California, Inc. (BANC) : Free Stock Analysis Report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.

Zacks Investment Research