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Zacks.com featured highlights include CBRE Group, MSCI, Home Depot and Cintas

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 18, 2017 - Stocks in this week’s article CBRE Group Inc. (NYSE:  – Free Report), MSCI Inc. (NYSE: (MSCI - Free Report)  – Free Report), Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: (HD - Free Report)  – Free Report) and Cintas Corporation (Nasdaq: (CTAS - Free Report)  – Free Report).

Screen of the Week of Zacks Investment Research by:

Invest in These Top GARP Stocks Now

Investors on the lookout for stocks that have the potential to offer the best growth as well as value investing may consider the growth at a reasonable price or GARP strategy.

This well-liked strategy helps investors gain exposure to stocks that have impressive growth prospects but are trading at a discount. Unlike the blend strategy, a portfolio created on the GARP way of investing is expected to help find stocks that offer the best of both value and growth investing.

GARP Metrics – Mix of Growth & Value Metrics

The GARP approach prefers stocks that are priced below the market or any reasonable target determined by fundamental analysis. These stocks also have solid prospects in terms of cash flow, revenues, earnings per share (EPS), and so on.

Growth Metrics

Strong earnings growth history and impressive earnings prospects are the main concepts that GARP investors borrow from the growth investing strategy. However, instead of super-normal growth rates, picking stocks with a more stable and reasonable growth rate is a preferred tactic of GARP investors. Hence, growth rates between 10% and 20% are considered ideal under the strategy.

Another growth metric that is considered by both growth and GARP investors is return on equity (ROE). GARP investors look for strong and higher ROE compared to the industry average to identify superior stocks. Moreover, stocks with positive cash flow find precedence under the GARP plan.

Value Metrics

GARP investing gives priority to one of the popular value metrics – price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. Though this investing style picks stocks with higher P/E ratios compared to value investors, it avoids companies with extremely high P/E ratios. Moreover, the price-to-book value (P/B) ratio is another value metric that is considered.

Using the GARP principle, we have run a screen to identify stocks that should offer solid returns in the near term.

Screening Parameters

Along with the criteria discussed in the above section, we have considered a favorable Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy).

Last 5-year EPS & projected 3–5 year EPS growth rates between 10% and 20% (Strong EPS growth history and prospects ensure improving business.)

ROE (over the past 12 months) greater than the industry average (Higher ROE compared to the industry average indicates superior stocks.)

P/E and P/B ratios less than M-industry average (P/E and P/B ratios less than that of the industry indicates that the stocks are undervalued.)

These few criteria have narrowed down the universe of over 7,700 stocks to only eight.

Here are four stocks that made it through the screen:

Los Angeles, CA-based CBRE Group Inc. (NYSE: CBGFree Report) operates as a commercial real estate services and investment company. It has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 18.71% and a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCIFree Report) is a leading provider of investment decision support tools to investment institutions worldwide. The company has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 5.60% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HDFree Report) is the one of world's largest home improvement retailer. The company has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 3.77% and carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Cintas Corporation (Nasdaq: CTASFree Report) is a provider of corporate identity uniforms through rental and sales programs as well as a provider of related business services. The company has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 6.96% and carries a Zacks Rank #2.

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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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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.

About Screen of the Week

Zacks.com created the first and best screening system on the web earning the distinction as the "#1 site for screening stocks" by Money Magazine.  But powerful screening tools is just the start. That is why Zacks created the Screen of the Week to highlight profitable stock picking strategies that investors can actively use. Each week, Zacks Profit from the Pros free email newsletter shares a new screening strategy. Learn more about it here https://at.zacks.com/?id=112

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