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Add These 4 GARP Stocks to Your Portfolio for Maximum Returns

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If you're looking for a profitable portfolio of stocks that will offer the best of value and growth investing, try the growth at a reasonable price or GARP strategy.

It helps an investor gain exposure to stocks that are undervalued and have impressive growth prospects. Unlike a blend strategy, a portfolio that uses GARP investing is expected to include stocks that offer the best of both value and growth investing.

GARP Metrics – Mix of Growth & Value Metrics

The GARP strategy seeks to offer an ideal investment by utilizing the best features of both value and growth investing. Investors adopting the GARP approach prefer to buy stocks that are priced below the market or any reasonable target determined by fundamental analysis. These stocks also have solid prospects in terms of cash flow, revenues, earnings per share (EPS) and so on.

Growth Metrics

Both strong earnings growth history and impressive earnings prospects are the main concepts that GARP investors borrow from the growth investing strategy. However, instead of super-normal growth rates, pursuing stocks with a more stable and reasonable growth rate is also a tactic of GARP investors. Hence, growth rates between 10% and 35% are considered ideal under the GARP strategy.

Another growth metric that is considered by both growth and GARP investors is the return on equity (ROE). GARP investors look for strong and higher ROE compared to the industry average to identify superior stocks. Moreover, stocks with positive cash flow find precedence under the GARP plan.

Value Metrics

GARP investing gives priority to one of the popular value metrics — the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. Though this investing style picks stocks with higher P/E ratios compared to value investors, it avoids companies with extremely high P/E ratios. Moreover, the price-to-book value (P/B) ratio is also considered.

Using the GARP principle, we have run a screen to identify stocks that should offer solid returns in the near term.

Screening Parameters

Along with the criteria discussed in the above section, we have considered a favorable Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy).

Last 5-year EPS & projected 3–5 year EPS growth rates between 10% and 35% (Strong EPS growth history and prospects ensure improving business.)

ROE (over the past 12 months) greater than the industry average (Higher ROE compared to the industry average indicates superior stocks.)

P/E and P/B ratios less than M-industry average (P/E and P/B ratios less than that of the industry indicate that the stocks are undervalued.)

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

Occidental Petroleum (OXY - Free Report) is an integrated oil and gas company with significant exploration and production exposure. It is a producer of a variety of basic chemicals, petrochemicals, polymers and specialty chemicals. The company sports a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Occidental Petroleum has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 26.17%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for OXY’s 2022 earnings has moved north by 13.7% to $9.97 per share over the past 30 days.

H&R Block (HRB - Free Report) is a provider of tax preparation services such as assisted income tax return preparation, do-it-yourself tax solutions and other products and services associated with income tax return preparation. The company flaunts a Zacks Rank #1.

H&R Block has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 21.04%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HRB's fiscal 2022 earnings has moved north by 10.9% to $3.25 per share over the past 30 days.

Carlisle Companies (CSL - Free Report) is engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of a wide range of roofing and waterproofing products, engineered products and finishing equipment. The company sports a Zacks Rank #1 currently.

Carlisle has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 23.01%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CSL’s 2022 earnings has moved north by 22.8% to $17.64 per share over the past 30 days.

East West Bancorp (EWBC - Free Report) serves as a financial bridge between the United States and Greater China by providing various personal and commercial banking services to small and medium-sized businesses, business executives, professionals, and other individuals. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

East West Bancorp has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 6.25%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for EWBC's 2022 earnings has moved north by 2.9% to $7.01 per share over the past 30 days.

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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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