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5 Best Stocks with Upgraded Broker Ratings to Keep an Eye On

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Selecting stocks from the vast investment universe is not an easy task, more so when market sentiments are relatively positive like the last few weeks. For this, you will have to understand the fundamentals of every company and try to place them against the present economic background to figure out how it may fare as an investment.

One way to cut this task out is to follow broker recommendation. Brokers have deeper insight into what’s happening in a particular company as they directly communicate with company management. Further, they have a better understanding of the overall sector and industry.

Basically, brokers research on a company’s publicly available financial statements, attend conference calls and engage in talks directly with the top management. Also, at times, they talk directly to customers to gauge what they like or dislike about the products and services offered by the company.

Hence, after proper research, brokers rate that particular company’s stock. Naturally, when an analyst upgrades a stock, you can easily rely on it.

But, merely depending on broker upgrades is not the right way to build your investment portfolio. You should also take into consideration 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 (4 weeks): The screen selects stocks that have witnessed broker rating upgrades 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: No matter whether market conditions are good or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) have a proven record of success. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

VGM Score equal to A: 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 10 stocks that made it through the screen:

Headquartered in New Braunfels, TX, Rush Enterprises, Inc. (RUSHA - Free Report) operates as an integrated retailer of commercial vehicles and related services in the United States. Over the trailing four quarters, the company delivered an average positive surprise of 12.8%. The stock witnessed 3.9% upward revisions in broker ratings over the past four weeks.

Nashville, TN based Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (LPX - Free Report) manufactures and sells building products. The company boasts a strong surprise history, with a trailing four-quarter average beat of 66.3%. The stock witnessed 12.5% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.

Tampa, FL based Kforce Inc. (KFRC - Free Report) provides professional and technical specialty staffing services and solutions globally. The company boasts a decent surprise history, with a trailing four-quarter average beat of 3.4%. The stock witnessed 7.2% upward revision in broker rating over the past four weeks.

Teradyne, Inc. (TER - Free Report) , headquartered in North Reading, MA, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells automatic test equipment worldwide. Over the trailing four quarters, the company delivered an average positive surprise of 24.9%. The stock witnessed 5.9% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.

The Children's Place, Inc. (PLCE - Free Report) , based in Secaucus, NJ, operates as a children's specialty apparel retailer. Over the trailing four quarters, the company delivered an average positive surprise of 36.3%. The stock witnessed 11.1% 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.

Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today.

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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