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3 Top Ranked Growth Stocks to Buy this Year

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The market has rebounded nicely over the last 6 months, and since mid-February, the S&P 500 has picked up over 19% in value.  If you’ve felt left out from the rebound though, you may need to boost your portfolio with some high quality growth candidates.

Fortunately, we’ve managed to find such investment prospects by screening for stocks with a high level of historical and forecasted EPS growth.  We’ve also narrowed down the selection for top picks by only including stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).  Utilizing the rank is a great way to earn higher levels of returns from stocks because they are well-positioned to beat EPS (earnings per share) expectations when they report their quarterly earnings results.  Let’s take a look at a few of the promising growth stocks these screening criteria have found for us today.   

Antero Midstream Partners LP-(AM - Free Report)

Antero Midstream Partners owns, operates, and develops midstream energy properties.  They have gathering pipelines and compressor stations which help them to provide midstream services to Antero Resources (AR) under long-term, fixed-fee contracts.  The company’s midstream operations are located in the Appalachian Basin, and they expect to have 304 miles of gathering pipeline by the end of 2016.  Like the other two stocks detailed in this article, Antero Midstream is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).  It’s worth noting that the stock gives out a generous 3.92% dividend.

Antero has some desirable growth characteristics backing it up.  It has a high trailing twelve month net margin of 36.28%, and this is way ahead of the industry’s net margin of just 6.28%.  The company has performed well in recent history with regards to attaining strong levels of profitability, and it seeks to build more earnings growth, as EPS is forecasted to grow by 39.33% this year.  Sales are also expected to increase, with revenues projected to grow by 78.90%.

Earnings estimate revisions by Wall Street analysts suggest that Antero will post favorable results when it releases its next quarterly earnings in late October.  Over the last 60 days, 11 analysts have revised their EPS estimates higher for this quarter.  In the same span of time, only two negative revisions were posted.  Antero has beaten our EPS consensus in each of the last four quarters, and it has beaten the estimate by an average of 42.90% per quarter over that time frame.

 

ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc-(ANIP - Free Report)

ANI Pharmaceuticals manufactures and markets branded and generic label pharmaceutical products.  They sell cough/cold medicine, antacids, laxatives, stomach remedies, and other pharmaceutical products.  ANIP doesn’t look too bad from a value standpoint, as it trades at a forward PE of just 18.63.  It also has a debt/capital of 41.83%, so it isn’t too leveraged by any means.  ANI’s stock has been building momentum, and shares have risen by over 50% in the last 12 weeks.

ANI Pharmaceuticals has grown at a rapid pace over the last few years, and since 2013, the company has grown sales by over 150%.  ANIP seeks to build on this growth, with revenues projected to grow by 65% this year.  This level of expected sales growth is much higher than what ANI experienced last year (35.7%).  The pharmaceutical company has a solid net margin of 11%, and it expects earnings to increase by 42.23% in 2016.

EPS estimates have been trending upwards for the current quarter.  Over the last 30 days, all three analysts posting revisions have adjusted their EPS estimates higher.  The outlook for 2016 looks promising for ANI as well.  In the last two months, four revisions have been made, and all of those were adjusted higher.  Because of this trend, our consensus has climbed, going from $3.26 to $3.60 over the past two months.  ANI has topped our EPS consensus estimate in each of the last two quarters, and its most recent beat was by a magnitude of 30.26%.

 

ANI PHARMACEUT Revenue (Quarterly)

ANI PHARMACEUT Revenue (Quarterly) | ANI PHARMACEUT Quote

 

Silicon Motion-(SIMO - Free Report)

Silicon Motion focuses on making and marketing universally compatible and low-power semiconductor solutions for the multimedia consumer electronics market.  They develop NAND flash controller ICs for solid-state storage drives and also make specialty RF ICs for mobile devices.  SIMO has earned an “A” for growth, and it also has a PEG of 0.97.  A PEG under 1 may suggest that there is value present. 

Silicon has traits which are desirable for any growth candidate.  For starters, the corporation has consistently posted high gross margin levels.  Over the last few years, gross margin has been in a range close to 50%.  The company’s net margin of 18.29% is impressive, and net income grew by over 36% last year.  Sales grew by about 25% last year, and 2016 is forecasted to see even more growth, with revenues projected to increase by 45.61%.

Analysts have unanimously raised their estimates upwards for the current quarter, current year, and next year over the last two months.  Four analysts revised estimates in the last 60 days, and this has brought the current quarter EPS consensus up from $0.62 to $0.74.  Our current year consensus estimate has also seen notable improvements over the last month, going from $2.31 to $2.77.  SIMO has beaten our EPS consensus estimate in three of the last four quarters, and it has a strong chance of topping our estimate when it releases its next quarterly earnings in late October.

 

Bottom Line

In order to find reliable growth candidates, you should look for companies with a history of increasing their sales and earnings.  If these companies also have higher growth expectations this year, then they may be on the path to seeing accelerated earnings growth.  Since you want to get in on stocks that top expectations, narrow down the range of picks further by searching for stocks with a Zacks Rank #1.  When you mix in historical and expected EPS growth with the Zacks Rank, you’ve got a winning combo.

The rank is a truly marvelous trading tool.  Our ranking system has beaten the S&P 500, yielding an average return of 25% per year for the last 29 years!  Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >>