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5 Stocks With Recent Price Strength Amid Severe Market Downturn

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Wall Street has been in the grip of volatility since April after a brief rally in the second half of March. For the last couple of months, market participants have been highly concerned that the U.S. economy may enter recession in the near future due to mounting inflation and an ultra-hawkish monetary stance taken by the Fed to control price rise.

On May 18, U.S. stock markets saw a rout as market participants’ sentiment was significantly dented by inflation fears. Several retail super giants largely missed on earnings due to huge inflationary pressures on logistics and wages.
Moreover, on May 17, the Fed Chair told The Wall Street Journal that the central bank will not hesitate to keep raising the Fed fund rate until inflation comes down to a healthy level. The Fed’s target inflation rate is 2%.

The global supply-chain system is a mess. China is yet to recover from the COVID-19 lockdown. The prolonged war between Russia and Ukraine has elevated prices of crude oil and natural gas. Together Ukraine and Russia were the largest wheat exporters globally. Food inflation has jumped after several Asian and African countries decided to ban exports of agricultural and poultry products.

Major retail supermarkets said that they have found a new trend in which Americans are compelled to spend more on gasoline and food items curtailing their expenditures on discretionary products. Consequently, the fear of a near-term recession has unnerved investors. Year to date, the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite have plummeted 13.3%, 17.7% and 27%, respectively.

A handful of stocks have shown price strength recently. Five of them are — Griffon Corp. (GFF - Free Report) , Hudson Technologies Inc. (HDSN - Free Report) , Universal Logistics Holdings Inc. (ULH - Free Report) , Pangaea Logistics Solutions Ltd. (PANL - Free Report) and Huron Consulting Group Inc. (HURN - Free Report) .

Here’s How We Arrived at the Picks

We have primarily targeted stocks that have freshly been on a bull run. Stocks seeing price strength recently have a high chance of carrying the momentum forward.

If a stock is continuously witnessing an uptrend, there must be a solid reason or it would have probably crashed. So, looking at stocks capable of beating the benchmark that they have set for themselves seems rational.

However, recent price strength alone cannot create magic. Therefore, other relevant parameters are needed to create a successful investment strategy.

Here’s how you should create the screen to shortlist the current as well as the potential winners.

Screening Parameters:

Percentage Change in Price (4 Weeks) greater than zero: This criterion shows that the stock has moved higher in the last four weeks.

Percentage Change Price (12 Weeks) greater than 10: This indicates that the stock has seen momentum over the last three months. This lowers the risk of choosing stocks that may have drawn attention due to the overwhelming performance of the overall market in a very short period.

Zacks Rank 1: No matter whether market conditions are good or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) have a proven history of outperformance. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Average Broker Rating 1: This indicates that brokers are also highly hopeful about the stock’s future performance.

Current Price greater than 5: The stocks must all be trading at a minimum of $5.

Current Price/ 52-Week High-Low Range more than 85%: This criterion filters stocks that are trading near their respective 52-week highs. It indicates that these are strong enough in terms of price.

Just these few criteria narrowed down the search from over 7,700 stocks to just six.

Let’s discuss five out of these six stocks:

Griffon is a diversified management and holding company conducting business through wholly-owned subsidiaries. GFF oversees the operations of its subsidiaries, allocates resources among them and manages their capital structures.

Griffon provides consumer and professional, and home and building products in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and internationally. GFF offers direction and assistance to its subsidiaries in connection with acquisition and growth opportunities and in connection with divestitures.

The stock price of Griffon has soared 57.9% in the past four weeks. GFF has an expected earnings growth rate of 68.8% for the current year (ending September 2022). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings improved 40% over the last 30 days.

Hudson Technologies is a leading provider of innovative solutions to recurring problems within the refrigeration industry. HDSN's proprietary RefrigerantSide Services increase operating efficiency and energy savings, and remove moisture, oils and other contaminants frequently found in the refrigeration circuits of large comfort cooling and process refrigeration systems.

Performed at a customer's site as an integral part of an effective scheduled maintenance program or in response to emergencies, RefrigerantSide Services of Hudson Technologies offer significant savings to customers due to their ability to be completed rapidly and at higher purity levels, and can be utilized while the customer's system continues to operate.

The stock price of Hudson Technologies has jumped 39.9% in the past four weeks. HDSN has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings improved 76.9% over the last 30 days.

Universal Logistics is a provider of customized transportation and logistics solutions. ULH offers services across their entire supply chain, including truckload, brokerage, intermodal, dedicated and value-added services.  

The stock price of Universal Logistics has climbed 32.7% in the past four weeks. ULH has an expected earnings growth rate of 41.3% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings improved 40% over the last 30 days.

Pangaea Logistics provides seaborne drybulk transportation services. PANL provides logistics services to a broad base of industrial customers who require the transportation of a wide variety of dry bulk cargoes, including grains, pig iron, hot-briquetted iron, bauxite, alumina, cement clinker, dolomite, and limestone. Pangaea Logistics provides dry bulk cargo transportation services for steel, aluminum, energy, agricultural, and other sectors.

The stock price of PANL has surged 16.8% in the past four weeks. Pangaea Logistics has an expected earnings growth rate of 18.4% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings improved 32.5% over the last 30 days.

Huron Consulting is a professional services firm, providing consultancy services in the United States and internationally. HURN operates through three segments: Healthcare, Business Advisory, and Education.

Huron Consulting's experienced and credentialed professionals employ their expertise in accounting, finance, economics and operations to a wide variety of both financially sound and distressed organizations

The stock price of HURN has advanced 5.5% in the past four weeks. Huron Consulting has an expected earnings growth rate of 22.6% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings improved 5.3% over the last 30 days.

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.

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