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Make a Fortune in 2021 With These 4 Top-Ranked Liquid Stocks

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Liquidity of a stock is an important parameter that several investors tend to ignore. It primarily determines a company’s capability to fulfill debt obligations by converting assets into liquid cash and equivalents.

These stocks have always been in demand courtesy of their potential to provide maximum returns. However, one should be alert enough before investing in such stocks. While a high liquidity level may imply that the company is clearing its dues at a faster rate compared with peers, it may also indicate that the company is failing to utilize its assets efficiently

Hence, one may consider a company’s efficiency level in addition to its liquidity for identifying prospective winners.

Measures to Identify Liquid Stocks

Current Ratio: It measures current assets relative to current liabilities. This ratio is used for measuring a company’s potential to meet both short- and long-term debt obligations. Thus, a current ratio — also known as working capital ratio — below 1 indicates that the company has more liabilities than assets. However, a high current ratio does not always indicate that the company is in good financial shape. It may also mean that the company has failed to utilize its assets significantly. Hence, a range of 1 to 3 is considered ideal.

Quick Ratio: Unlike current ratio, quick ratio — also called “acid-test ratio" or "quick assets ratio" — indicates a company’s ability to pay short-term obligations. It considers inventory excluding current assets relative to current liabilities. Like the current ratio, a quick ratio of greater than 1 is desirable.

Cash Ratio: This is the most conservative ratio among the three, as it takes into account only cash and cash equivalents, and invested funds relative to current liabilities. It measures a company’s ability to meet its current debt obligations using the most liquid of assets. Though a cash ratio of more than 1 may point to sound financials, a higher number may indicate inefficiency in cash utilization.

So, a ratio greater than 1 is desirable at all times but may not always appropriately represent a company’s financial condition.

Screening Parameters

In order to pick the best of the lot, we have added asset utilization, which is a widely used measure of a company’s efficiency, as one of the screening criteria. Asset utilization is the ratio of total sales over the past 12 months to the last four-quarter average of total assets. Though this ratio varies across industries, companies with a ratio higher than their respective industries can be considered efficient.

In order to ensure that these liquid and efficient stocks have solid growth potential, we have added our proprietary Growth Style Score to the screen.

Current Ratio, Quick Ratio and Cash Ratio between 1 and 3 (While liquidity ratios of greater than 1 are desirable, significantly high ratios may indicate inefficiency.)

Asset utilization greater than industry average (Higher asset utilization than the industry average indicates a company’s efficiency.)

Zacks Rank equal to #1 (Only Strong Buy-rated stocks can get through). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Growth Score less than or equal to B (Back-tested results show that stocks with a Growth Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 handily beat other stocks.)

These criteria have narrowed down the universe of more than 7,700 stocks to only five.

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

Based in Forest City, IA, Winnebago Industries, Inc. (WGO - Free Report) is a leading producer of recreational vehicles and marine products utilized in leisure travel and outdoor recreation activities. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its fiscal 2021 earnings has been revised upward by 18.8% over the last 30 days to $5.43 per share. The company has a Growth Score of A. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 39.37%, on average.

Headquartered in New York, NY, Shutterstock, Inc. (SSTK - Free Report) operates as a global marketplace for digital imagery. The company offers image services comprising vectors, photographs, and illustrations, which are utilized in visual communications and related content, and tools. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2020 earnings has been revised upward by 53% to $2.28 in the past 60 days. The company has a Growth Score of A. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 79.22%, on average.

Domiciled in Dothan, AL, Construction Partners, Inc. (ROAD - Free Report) , a civil infrastructure company, provides various products utilized in the construction and maintenance of roadways, highways, roads, bridges, airports, and commercial and residential developments. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its fiscal 2021 earnings has been revised upward by 8.3% to 91 cents in the past 30 days. The company has a Growth Score of A. The consensus for current year sales indicates growth of 23.8% on a year-over-year basis.

Springfield, MA-based Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (SWBI - Free Report) provides firearms products, including modern sporting rifles, bolt action rifles, revolvers and pistols, muzzleloaders, and handcuffs. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its fiscal 2021 earnings has been revised upward by 4.1% to $3.27 in the past 30 days. The company has a Growth Score of A. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 27.51%, on average.

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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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