Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Buy These 4 Stocks for Solid Earnings Acceleration

Read MoreHide Full Article

Earnings growth interests almost everyone, from the top brass to research analysts. After all, earnings are a measure of the money a company is generating. Notably, earnings are essentially revenues that the company generates after deducting the cost of production over a given period of time.

Nonetheless, earnings acceleration works even better when it comes to boosting the stock price. Studies have shown that a majority of stocks had seen acceleration in earnings before a rally in stock price.

What is Earnings Acceleration?

Primarily, earnings acceleration is the incremental growth in earnings of a company. In other words, if the rate of a company’s quarter-over-quarter earnings growth increases within a stipulated frame of time, it can be referred to as earnings acceleration.

In case of earnings growth, you pay for something that is already reflected in the stock price. But earnings acceleration helps spot stocks that haven’t caught the attention of investors yet, which once secured will invariably lead to a rally in the share price. This is because earnings acceleration considers both direction and magnitude of growth rates.

Increasing percentage of earnings growth means that the company is fundamentally sound and has been on the right track for a considerable period of time. Meanwhile, a sideways percentage of earnings growth indicates a period of consolidation or slowdown, while a decelerating percentage of earnings growth may at times drag prices down.

Therefore, earnings acceleration should be viewed as a key metric for share price outperformance.

4 Solid Choices

Let’s look at stocks for which the last two quarter-over-quarter percentage EPS growth rates exceed the growth rates of the previous periods. The projected quarter-over-quarter percentage EPS growth rates are also expected to be higher than the previous periods’ growth rates.

EPS % Projected Growth (Q1)/(Q0) greater than EPS % Growth (Q0)/(Q-1): The projected growth rate for the current quarter (Q1) over the completed quarter (Q0) has to be greater than the growth rate from the completed quarter (Q0) over one quarter ago (Q-1).

EPS % Growth (Q0)/(Q-1) greater than EPS % Growth (Q-1)/(Q-2): The growth rate for the completed quarter (Q0) over one quarter ago (Q-1) has to be greater than the growth rate from one quarter ago (Q-1) over two quarters ago (Q-2).

EPS % Growth (Q-1)/(Q-2) greater than EPS % Growth (Q-2)/(Q-3): The growth rate from one quarter ago (Q-1) over two quarters ago (Q-2) has to be greater than the growth rate from two quarters ago (Q-2) over three quarters ago (Q-3).

In addition to this, we have added the following parameters:

Current Price greater than or equal to $5: This screen out low-priced stocks.

Average 20-day volume greater than or equal to 50,000: High trading volume implies that the stocks have adequate liquidity.

The above criteria narrowed down the universe of around 7,735 stocks to 24. Here are the top four stocks:

The Buckle, Inc. (BKE - Free Report) operates as a retailer of casual apparel, footwear, and accessories for young men and women in the United States. The company sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 4.6%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX - Free Report) operates as an off-price apparel and home fashions retailer. The company has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 24.6%.

Digi International Inc. (DGII - Free Report) provides IoT connectivity products, services, and solutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. The company has a Zacks Rank #1. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 13.9%.

Pure Storage, Inc. (PSTG - Free Report) engages in building a data platform that enables businesses to enhance performance and reduce complexity and costs worldwide. The company has a Zacks Rank #2. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 19.1%.

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


Zacks' 7 Best Strong Buy Stocks (New Research Report)


Valued at $99, click below to receive our just-released report
predicting the 7 stocks that will soar highest in the coming month.


Click Here, It's Really Free

Published in