How to Boost Your Portfolio with Top Oils and Energy Stocks Set to Beat Earnings

STR ET

Two factors often determine stock prices in the long run: earnings and interest rates. Investors can't control the latter, but they can focus on a company's earnings results every quarter.

Life and the stock market are both about expectations, and rising above what is expected is often rewarded, while falling short can come with negative consequences. Investors might want to try to capture stronger returns by finding positive earnings surprises.

Now that we know how important earnings and earnings surprises are, it's time to show investors how to take advantage of these events to boost their returns by utilizing the Zacks Earnings ESP filter.

The Zacks Earnings ESP, Explained

The Zacks Earnings ESP is more formally known as the Expected Surprise Prediction, and it aims to grab the inside track on the latest analyst estimate revisions ahead of a company's report. The idea is relatively intuitive as a newer projection might be based on more complete information.

The core of the ESP model is comparing the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate, where the resulting percentage difference between the two equals the Expected Surprise Prediction. The Zacks Rank is also factored into the ESP metric to better help find companies that appear poised to top their next bottom-line consensus estimate, which will hopefully help lift the stock price.

In fact, when we combined a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better and a positive Earnings ESP, stocks produced a positive surprise 70% of the time. Perhaps most importantly, using these parameters has helped produce 28.3% annual returns on average, according to our 10 year backtest.

Stocks with a ranking of #3 (Hold), or 60% of all stocks covered by the Zacks Rank, are expected to perform in-line with the broader market. Stocks with rankings of #2 (Buy) and #1 (Strong Buy), or the top 15% and top 5% of stocks, respectively, should outperform the market; Strong Buy stocks should outperform more than any other rank.

Should You Consider Sitio Royalties?

The final step today is to look at a stock that meets our ESP qualifications. Sitio Royalties (STR - Free Report) earns a #2 (Buy) 27 days from its next quarterly earnings release on May 8, 2024, and its Most Accurate Estimate comes in at $0.25 a share.

By taking the percentage difference between the $0.25 Most Accurate Estimate and the $0.23 Zacks Consensus Estimate, Sitio Royalties has an Earnings ESP of +8.96%. Investors should also know that STR is one of a large group of stocks with positive ESPs. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.

STR is one of just a large database of Oils and Energy stocks with positive ESPs. Another solid-looking stock is Energy Transfer LP (ET - Free Report) .

Energy Transfer LP, which is readying to report earnings on May 8, 2024, sits at a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) right now. It's Most Accurate Estimate is currently $0.35 a share, and ET is 27 days out from its next earnings report.

For Energy Transfer LP, the percentage difference between its Most Accurate Estimate and its Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.31 is +14.75%.

STR and ET's positive ESP metrics may signal that a positive earnings surprise for both stocks is on the horizon.

Find Stocks to Buy or Sell Before They're Reported

Use the Zacks Earnings ESP Filter to turn up stocks with the highest probability of positively, or negatively, surprising to buy or sell before they're reported for profitable earnings season trading. Check it out here >>

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