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5 Stock Picks with Exciting Relative Price Strength

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Investors generally gauge a stock’s potential return by examining earnings growth and valuation multiples. At the same time, it’s important to measure the performance of such a stock relative to its industry or peers, or the appropriate benchmark.

If you see that a stock is underperforming on the fundamental factors, then it would be prudent to move on and find a better alternative. However, those outperforming their respective sectors in terms of price should be selected because they stand a better chance to provide considerable returns.

Then again, it is imperative that you determine whether or not an investment has relevant upside potential when considering stocks with significant relative price strength. Stocks delivering better than the S&P 500 over a period of 1 to 3 months at the least and having solid fundamentals indicate room for growth, and are the best ways to go about this strategy.

Finally, it is important to find out whether analysts are optimistic about the upcoming earnings results of these companies. In order to do this, we have added positive estimate revisions for the current quarter’s (Q1) earnings to our screen. When a stock undergoes an upward revision, it leads to additional price gains.

Screening Parameters

Relative % Price change – 12 weeks greater than 0

Relative % Price change – 4 weeks greater than 0

Relative % Price change – 1 week greater than 0

(We have considered those stocks that have been outperforming the S&P 500 over the last 12 weeks, 4 weeks and 1 week.)

% Change (Q1) Est. over 4 Weeks greater than 0: Positive current quarter estimate revisions over the last four weeks.

Zacks Rank equal to 1: Only Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks – that have returned more than 26% annually over the last 26 years and surpassed the S&P 500 in 23 of the last 26 years – can get through.

Current Price greater than or equal to $5 and Average 20-day Volume greater than or equal to 50,000: A minimum price of $5 is a good standard to screen low-priced stocks, while a high trading volume would imply adequate liquidity.

VGM Score less than or equal to B: Our research shows that stocks with a VGM Score of ‘A’ or ‘B’ when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 (Buy) offer the best upside potential.

Here are five of the 22 stocks that made it through the screen:

CONE Midstream Partners L.P. : Headquartered in Canonsburg, PA, CONE Midstream Partners is a master limited partnership focused on natural gas and condensate gathering in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The partnership has a VGM score of “A” and an excellent earnings surprise history. It surpassed estimates in each of the last four quarters at an average rate of 19.38%.

The Chemours Company (CC - Free Report) : The Chemours Company is a global chemical company specializing in the production of titanium dioxide, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions. Sporting a VGM score of “A”, this Wilmington, DE headquartered company’s expected EPS growth rate for 3 to 5 years currently stands at 15.50% –– comfortably ahead of the industry growth rate of 8.80%.

Sanderson Farms Inc. : Headquartered Laurel, MS,Sanderson Farms is one of the largest poultry producers in the U.S. It is engaged in the production, processing, marketing and distribution of fresh and frozen chicken products. The company has a VGM score of “A” and surprised earnings to the upside in each of the last three quarters.

Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT - Free Report) : Based in Santa Clara, CA, Applied Materials is one of the world’s largest suppliers of equipment for the fabrication of semiconductor, flat panel liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules. The fiscal 2016 Zacks Consensus Estimate for this company is $1.75, representing 47.14% earnings per share growth over fiscal 2015. The next fiscal year’s average forecast is $2.26, pointing to 29.34% growth. Applied Materials has a VGM score of “B”.

NetApp Inc. (NTAP - Free Report) : A provider of enterprise storage and data management software and hardware products and services, Sunnyvale, CA-based NetApp has a VGM score of “B”. Over the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2017 and 2018 increased 17% and 16%, respectively, to $1.62 and $1.79 per share.

You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and test them first before taking the investment plunge.

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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