During an earnings season, investor sentiment is mainly influenced by corporate results and guidance. Though earnings are a good indicator of a stock’s future performance, identifying key future growth drivers is not always an easy task.
A company’s better-than-expected earnings may not always translate to a strong price appreciation for its stock owing to certain reasons that are not easy to identify. Therefore, it is advisable to depend on expert advice. One way to do this is to follow broker recommendations.
Brokers have a better understanding of stocks, deeper industry insight and a grasp over the economy at large. They scrutinize the company’s fundamentals and place them against the current economic backdrop to find out how the stock will fare as an investment option.
Brokers go through the company’s publicly available documents, attend conference calls and are in direct communication with the top management. At times, to get more insight into the company’s products and services offered, they even communicate with customers.
After an in-depth research, brokers decide to rate the company’s stock. So, when a broker upgrades a stock, one can easily rely on it.
Still, solely depending on analyst recommendations is not the right way to build investment portfolio. One should also take into consideration certain other factors to ensure solid returns.
Picking the Winning Strategy
We have a screening strategy that will help in your search for potential winners:
Broker Rating Upgrades (four weeks) of 1% or more: The screen selects stocks that have witnessed broker rating upgrades of 1% or more over the last four weeks.
Current Price greater than 5: The stocks must be trading above $5.
Average 20-day Volume greater than 100,000: A large trading volume guarantees that the stock is easily tradable.
Zacks Rank equal to #1 or 2: No matter whether market conditions are good or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) have a proven record of success. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
VGM Score of A or B: Our research shows that stocks with a VGM Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 offer the best upside potential.
Here are three of the four stocks that qualified the screening:
Based in Atlanta, GA, HD Supply Holdings, Inc. HDS is an industrial distributor. Its fiscal 2020 earnings are expected to rise 5.4%. The stock, carrying a Zacks Rank #2, has witnessed 9.1% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.
Synchrony Financial SYF, headquartered in Stamford, CT, is a consumer financial services company. Its earnings are expected to increase 16.3% in 2019. The stock, carrying a Zacks Rank #2, has witnessed 7.1% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.
Alaska Air Group, Inc. ALK provides passengers and cargo air transportation services. Earnings for this Seattle, WA-based company are projected to increase 50.5% for 2019. The stock, carrying a Zacks Rank #2, has witnessed 8.3% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.
Get the rest of the stocks on the list and start putting this and other ideas to the test. It can all be done with the Research Wizard stock picking and backtesting software.
The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out.
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Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.
Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks’ portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance
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