Investors interested in Finance stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Travelers (TRV) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Finance peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Travelers is a member of the Finance sector. This group includes 871 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #1. 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 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. Travelers is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for TRV's full-year earnings has moved 8.4% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that TRV has returned about 37.9% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Finance sector has returned an average of 23.5% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Travelers is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

One other Finance stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is CrossFirst Bankshares (CFB). The stock is up 25.9% year-to-date.

For CrossFirst Bankshares, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 2.6% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Breaking things down more, Travelers is a member of the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry, which includes 40 individual companies and currently sits at #38 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 31.6% so far this year, so TRV is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, CrossFirst Bankshares falls under the Banks - Northeast industry. Currently, this industry has 78 stocks and is ranked #42. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +5%.

Going forward, investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to Travelers and CrossFirst Bankshares as they could maintain their solid performance.

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