Has Mastercard (MA) Outpaced Other Business Services Stocks This Year?
For those looking to find strong Business Services stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Mastercard (MA) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Mastercard is one of 276 companies in the Business Services group. The Business Services group currently sits at #4 within 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 is a proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. MA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MA's full-year earnings has moved 4.29% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Based on the latest available data, MA has gained about 1.45% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Business Services sector has returned an average of -19.02% on a year-to-date basis. This means that Mastercard is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
Looking more specifically, MA belongs to the Financial Transaction Services industry, which includes 32 individual stocks and currently sits at #55 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 12.95% this year, meaning that MA is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.
Investors in the Business Services sector will want to keep a close eye on MA as it attempts to continue its solid performance.
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