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Zacks.com featured highlights include: Molina, Dana, DICK¿¿¿S, Centene and Covenant

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – February 5, 2019 - Stocks in this week’s article are Molina Healthcare (MOH - Free Report) , Dana Inc. (DAN - Free Report) , DICK’S Sporting Goods (DKS - Free Report) , Centene Corp. (CNC - Free Report) and Covenant Transportation Group .

5 Stocks that Brokers Currently Love – Do You?

The sole aim of investors, while designing their portfolio, is to generate handsome returns. However, equity market tricks are not easy to master with a deluge of stocks flooding the space at any point of time. This is particularly a daunting task when one tries to select a winning portfolio without proper guidance.

Therefore, it is in the best interest of investors to be guided by the experts in the field. The experts in the field of investing are brokers.

Of the three types of brokers/analysts (sell-side, buy-side and independent) in the investment world, sell-side analysts are most common. Various brokerage firms employ them to provide unbiased opinion to investors after thorough research. Buy-side analysts are employed by hedge funds, mutual funds etc. while the independent ones simply sell their reports to investors.

All types of brokers indulge in thorough research of the stocks under their coverage. They have access to detailed information on a company. They attend company conference calls/presentations to this end and scrutinize every detail available publicly before advising investors. Naturally, broker advice acts as an invaluable guide for investors in their bid to garner the maximum from their portfolios.

Earnings Estimate Revisions – An Invaluable Pointer

Since brokers follow stocks in their coverage minutely, they revise their earnings estimates on a stock after carefully examining the pros and cons of an event for the concerned company. All decisions by brokers are backed by solid logic and thus estimate revisions serve as an important pointer regarding the price of a stock.

For instance, an earnings beat by a company generally leads to upward estimate revisions with prices moving north. Similarly, lackluster earnings often lead to stock price depreciation. Investors tend to be guided by the direction of estimate revisions and stock price while formulating their investment strategy. To take care of the earnings performance, we have designed a screen based on improving analyst recommendation and upward estimate revisions over the last four weeks.

Revenue Performance Not to be Ignored

While we have talked about the bottom line in detail, the revenue performance should not be overlooked. Actually, according to many market watchers a revenue beat is more creditable for a company than a mere earnings outperformance.

To address top-line concerns, we have included price/sales ratio in our screen. It serves as a strong complementary valuation metric.

For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit Zacks.com at: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/351760/5-stocks-that-brokers-currently-love-do-you

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.

Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News

Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has more than doubled the market from 1988 through 2016. Its average gain has been a stellar +25% per year. See these high-potential stocks free >>.

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Contact: Jim Giaquinto

Company: Zacks.com

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Email: pr@zacks.com

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Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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