Is Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT) Outperforming Other Finance Stocks This Year?

For those looking to find strong Finance stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT) 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? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of AHT and the rest of the Finance group's stocks.

Ashford Hospitality Trust is a member of the Finance sector. This group includes 856 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #7. 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 successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. AHT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AHT's full-year earnings has moved 1.30% higher within the past quarter. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the latest available data, AHT has gained about 32.50% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Finance group have gained about 11.55% on average. This shows that Ashford Hospitality Trust is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Looking more specifically, AHT belongs to the REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry, a group that includes 120 individual stocks and currently sits at #162 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 17.51% so far this year, so AHT is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

AHT will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested in Finance stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.