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Pick These 5 Profitable Stocks With Impressive Returns

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One of the best possible ways to measure the future progress of a stock is by using profitability analysis. Notably, profitability analysis helps in calculating the total expenses borne and total revenues generated by a company. A company with high sales surplus is able to make more profits after meeting all its operating and non-operating costs.

In this context, it may be wise to invest in shares of a company with a high level of profitability as it normally ensures high returns. As a result, the simplest and most transparent way of checking a company’s profitability is by using accounting ratios. There are a variety of profitability ratios, from which we have selected net income ratio here as it is the most useful and simplest profitability metric.

Net Income Ratio

There are a variety of profit ratios like gross income ratio, operating income ratio, pretax profit margin and net income ratio, which can be used to find out a company’s profit generating abilities. But net income ratio is widely accepted as the most conservative of the above-mentioned ratios.

Net income in simple words is total earnings a company makes after deducting all the expenses from its sales revenue. Net income ratio or net profit margin is a ratio of a company’s net income and sales revenue. A high net income ratio shows that the company is able to effectively manage all its business activities, including production, administration, selling, etc.

Screening Parameters

Net income ratio is one of our key screening parameters. However, to find out the sure winners, we have added a few additional criteria to arrive at an efficient strategy.  

Zacks Rank equal to #1: Only Strong Buy stocks are allowed. With the Zacks Rank proving itself to be one of the best rating systems out there, this is a great way to start things off.

% Rating Strong Buy greater than 70%: This indicates that 70% of the analysts covering these stocks are optimistic.

12-Month Trailing Net Income Ratio Higher than X Industry: High net income ratio indicates a company’s solid profitability.

12-Month Trailing Sales and Net Income Growth Higher than X Industry: Stocks that possess higher sales and net income growth in the last 12 months showcase better financial performance.

These few parameters narrowed down the universe of over 7,883 stocks to only seven.

Here are five of the seven stocks that qualified the screen:

Ligand Pharmaceuticals (LGND - Free Report) is a biopharmaceutical company. It has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 59.5%.

Energy Recovery, Inc. (ERII - Free Report) is a provider of energy solutions to industrial fluid flow markets. It has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of more than 100%.

Turtle Beach Corporation (HEAR - Free Report) is an audio technology company. It has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of more than 100%.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF - Free Report) is an iron ore mining company. It has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 47.7%.

SVB Financial Group  is a diversified financial services company. It has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 15.9%.

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.

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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