Arctic Cat Inc. (ACAT) and ASML Holding NV (ASML)

Well, its spring again. Time to doing some cleaning, take in a ballgame and buy an ATV!

Arctic Cat Inc. (ACAT - Snapshot Report) has certainly got you covered when it comes to all-terrain vehicles, and today it rode to the second spot on the Zacks #1 Rank Top Performers List. Shares advanced by 9.2% on a pretty solid day for the market.

Furthermore, volume was almost 220,000 shares on Wednesday, which was more than double the daily average of around 84,000.

There wasn't any huge news out of ACAT today. In fact, the company isn't scheduled to report its fiscal fourth quarter report until May 9...and the Zacks Consensus Estimate is at a loss of 58 cents per share for the period.

Nevertheless, Arctic Cat is a Zacks #1 Rank ('strong buy') stock, as its earnings estimates are moving steadily higher. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the fiscal year ending March 2011 is 65 cents per share, which marks a gain of 27.5% over three months.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the fiscal year ending March 2012 is at 83 cents per share right now, which suggests year-over-year profit growth of nearly 28%. The outlook is also up 22% in three months and 3.8% in the past 30 days.

Earnings season has been a pretty fun time for Arctic Cat of late. Except for an uncharacteristic miss in last year's fiscal fourth quarter, the company has a very impressive streak of positive earnings surprises. In its most recently-reported quarter, ACAT really went all out and beat the consensus by more than 250%.

For its fiscal third quarter, Arctic Cat earned 50 cents per share, which blew the doors of the Zacks Consensus Estimate at only 14 cents. Sales increased by 16% to $152 million as it enjoyed higher sales across all product lines.

The big news in the quarter, though, was that ACAT raised its guidance for the full year, which was the impetus behind the positive earnings estimate revisions highlighted above.

Arctic Cat designs, engineers, manufactures and markets all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles under the Arctic Cat® brand name, as well as related parts, garments and accessories.

It is one of four companies from the leisure & recreational products industry on today's Zacks #1 Rank List. The other 3 names are Cybex International, Inc. (CYBI - Snapshot Report), Johnson Outdoors, Inc. (JOUT - Snapshot Report) and Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc. (LVB - Snapshot Report).

ASML Holding NV (ASML - Snapshot Report) was right behind ACAT today with a gain of 8.85%. In this case though, it isn't so much what ASML did to make it that high on the list, but what Intel did. As you probably already know, the world's leading chipmaker announced a strong first quarter report yesterday – and ASML decided to go along for the ride.

Volume for ASML on Wednesday was almost 5.5 million shares, compared to the daily average of 3.2 million.

ASML is the world's leading provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry, manufacturing complex machines that are critical to the production of integrated circuits or chips. It is the only company from the semiconductor equipment – wafer fabrication industry on today's Zacks #1 Rank List.

However, there are other semiconductor-related companies on the List, including ASM International N.V. (ASMI - Snapshot Report), OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (OVTI - Analyst Report) and Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (SPRD - Snapshot Report). (By the way, ASMI was also a Top Performer with a gain of 7.91%.)

ASML has seen a lot of upward revisions to its earnings estimates of late. In just the past 7 trading days, six out of 8 total estimates were revised higher. As a result, the Zacks Consensus Estimate has moved upward by 7% in that time and is now at $4.59 per share. It is also up more than 11% in the past 30 days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2012 is $4.14 per share, which moved higher by 7% in 7 days as 3 of 7 estimates advanced. This guidance is also up nearly 10% in a month.

While we can credit Intel with most of today's gain, it doesn't explain why earnings estimates are moving higher for ASML. For that, you need to go back to its own first-quarter earnings report from last week. Earnings per share of $1.30 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a little more than 15%.

Actually, that was ASML's sixth straight quarter with a positive earnings surprise. Furthermore, in the past 10 quarters, the company has beaten 8 times.

One more thing: The absolute best Zacks #1 Rank Top Performer on Monday was once again BTU International, Inc. (BTUI - Snapshot Report), which was also featured in yesterday's article. Today shares jumped by 10.33%.

Read the full analyst report on LVB

Read the full analyst report on BTUI

Read the full analyst report on ACAT

Read the full analyst report on OVTI

Read the full analyst report on JOUT

Read the full analyst report on CYBI

Read the full analyst report on ASMI

Read the full analyst report on ASML

Read the full analyst report on SPRD