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These 4 Relative Price Strength Stocks Are Worth a Gamble

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Whether a stock has the potential to offer considerable returns is determined primarily by its earnings and valuation ratios. Simultaneously, it is important to check whether its price performance exceeds its peers or the industry average.

Upon such comparison, if we find that a stock is unable to match up to wider sectoral growth despite having impressive earnings momentum or valuation multiples, it may be better to avoid it.

However, those outperforming their respective industries or benchmarks should be included in your portfolio since they have a higher chance of securing significant returns. Picking a stock that outperforms its peers ensures that you have a winning option on your hands.

Then again, it is imperative that you determine whether or not an investment has relevant upside potential when considering stocks with significant relative price strength. Stocks delivering better than the S&P 500 over a period of 1 to 3 months at the least and having solid fundamentals indicate room for growth and are the best ways to go about this strategy.

Finally, it is important to find out whether analysts are optimistic about the upcoming earnings of these companies. In order to do this, we have added positive estimate revisions for the current quarter’s (Q1) earnings to our screen. When a stock undergoes an upward revision, it leads to additional price gains.

Screening Parameters

Relative % Price change – 12 weeks greater than 0

Relative % Price change – 4 weeks greater than 0

Relative % Price change – 1 week greater than 0


(We have considered those stocks that have been outperforming the S&P 500 over the last 12 weeks, four weeks and one week.)

% Change (Q1) Est. over 4 Weeks greater than 0: Positive current-quarter estimate revisions over the last four weeks.

Zacks Rank equal to 1: Only Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks — that have returned more than 26% annually over the last 26 years and surpassed the S&P 500 in 23 of the last 26 years — can get through. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Current Price greater than or equal to $5 and Average 20-day Volume greater than or equal to 50,000: A minimum price of $5 is a good standard to screen low-priced stocks, while a high trading volume would imply adequate liquidity.

VGM Score less than or equal to B: Our research shows that stocks with a VGM Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 (Buy) offer the best upside potential.

Here are the four stocks that made it through the screen:

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (LPX - Free Report) : Louisiana-Pacific is a leading manufacturer of sustainable, quality engineered wood building materials and structural framing products. The 2021 Zacks Consensus Estimate for this Nashville, TN-based firm indicates 68.68% earnings per share growth over 2020. Louisiana-Pacific has a VGM Score of A.

PotlatchDeltic Corporation (PCH - Free Report) : A real estate investment trust with around 1.9 million acres of timberlands, PotlatchDeltic has a VGM Score of B. Over the past 30 days, this Spokane, WA-based firm has seen the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2021 improve 27.7%.

Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. (CZWI - Free Report) : This Eau Claire, WI-based holding company serves customers primarily in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Citizens Community Bancorp has a VGM Score of B and an excellent earnings surprise history, having surpassed estimates in each of the last four quarters by 24.54%, on average.

L Brands, Inc. : L Brands is focused on women’s intimate and other apparel, personal care, beauty and home fragrance products. Sporting a VGM Score of A, this Columbus, OH-headquartered company’s expected EPS growth rate for three to five years currently stands at 13%, comparing favorably with the industry's growth rate of 10.6%.

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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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