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4 Stocks With Rising Cash Flows to Survive Market Volatility

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Investors are keeping a close watch on the Fed today as it gears up for the rate announcement. Eyes and ears are also on indications of the Fed’s future course of action. It’s no secret that the global market is at a critical juncture, and investors have been on a roller coaster ride this year, thanks to high inflation and a quick rise in interest rates that has been weighing on asset prices.

However, instead of brooding too much on these and staying on the sidelines, investors can benefit from stocks that are cash cows and offer higher returns. And why not? Cash is the lifeblood of any business. It offers strength, vitality and flexibility to make investment decisions as well as the fuel to run its growth engine. Moreover, cash shields a company from market turmoil and indicates that profits are being channelized in the right direction.

In this regard, stocks like AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. (AMN - Free Report) , Encore Wire Corporation (WIRE - Free Report) , Tecnoglass Inc. (TGLS - Free Report) and SP Plus Corporation (SP - Free Report) are worth buying.

In fact, one must go beyond profit numbers and look at a company’s efficiency in generating cash flows to invest in the right stocks. This is because even a profit-making company can have a dearth of cash flow and fail to meet its obligations. However, a company’s resiliency can be fairly judged when its efficacy in generating cash flows is assessed. This holds more relevance in the current context amid uncertainties in the global economy, market disruptions and dislocations, as well as liquidity concerns resulting from geopolitical tensions or the pandemic.

To figure out this efficiency, one needs to consider a company’s net cash flow. While in any business cash moves in and out, it is net cash flow that explains how much money a company is actually generating.

If a company is experiencing a positive cash flow, it denotes an increase in its liquid assets, which gives it the means to meet debt obligations, shell out for expenses, reinvest in the business, endure downturns and finally return wealth to shareholders. On the other hand, a negative cash flow indicates a decline in the company’s liquidity, which in turn lowers its flexibility to support these moves.

However, having a positive cash flow merely does not secure a company’s future growth. To ride on the growth curve, a company must have its cash flow increasing because that indicates management’s efficiency in regulating its cash movements and less dependency on outside financing for running its business.

Therefore, keep yourself abreast with the following screen to bet on stocks with rising cash flows.

Screening Parameters:

To find stocks that have seen increasing cash flow over time, we ran the screen for those whose cash flow in the latest reported quarter was at least equal to or greater than the 5-year average cash flow per common share. This implies a positive trend and increasing cash over a period of time.

In addition to this we chose:

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 company’s future performance.

Current Price greater than or equal to $5: This sieves out low-priced stocks.

VGM Score of B or better: This score is also of great assistance in selecting stocks. Importantly, this scoring system helps in picking winning stocks in their industry categories.

Here are our four picks out of the 16 stocks that qualified the screening:

AMN Healthcare Services is a travel healthcare staffing company. AMN Healthcare Services recruits and places nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals in travel or permanent assignments in acute-care facilities, physician practice groups, and other healthcare facilities.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate of $11.26 per share for AMN Healthcare Services’ current-year earnings has moved 8.2% in the past two months. AMN has a VGM Score of B.

Encore Wire is a low-cost manufacturer of copper electrical building wire and cable. The company is a significant supplier of residential wire for interior electrical wiring in homes, apartments and manufactured housing, as well as building wire for electrical distribution in commercial and industrial buildings.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Encore Wire’s 2022 earnings has been revised upward to $26.86 from $19.18 in the past two months. WIRE has a VGM Score of A.

Tecnoglass is a leading manufacturer of architectural glass, windows and associated aluminum products serving the global residential and commercial end markets.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Tecnoglass’s 2022 earnings has been revised 14.7% upward to $2.57 in the past two months. TGLS has a VGM Score of A.

SP Plus Corporation provides professional parking, ground transportation, facility maintenance, security and event logistics services to property owners and managers in all markets of the real estate industry.  

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SP Plus’ 2022 earnings has been revised 2.1% upward to $2.89 per share in the past month. SP has a VGM Score of B.

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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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