For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. HCI Group (HCI) 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? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

HCI Group is one of 869 individual stocks in the Finance sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #1 in 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. HCI Group is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HCI's full-year earnings has moved 11% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, HCI has gained about 20.1% so far this year. In comparison, Finance companies have returned an average of 4.9%. This means that HCI Group is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Allianz SE (ALIZY) is another Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 16.2%.

Over the past three months, Allianz SE's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 3%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, HCI Group belongs to the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry, a group that includes 41 individual companies and currently sits at #32 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 11.4% so far this year, so HCI is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Allianz SE falls under the Insurance - Multi line industry. Currently, this industry has 41 stocks and is ranked #81. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +6.1%.

HCI Group and Allianz SE could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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

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