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Zacks.com featured highlights include JAKKS Pacific, GIII Apparel Group, Brinker International and CNA Financial

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – December 14, 2023 – Stocks in this week’s article are JAKKS Pacific (JAKK - Free Report) , GIII Apparel Group (GIII - Free Report) , Brinker International (EAT - Free Report) and CNA Financial (CNA - Free Report) .

4 Stocks Trading Near 52-Week Highs with More Upside Potential

Investors generally consider 52-week high as a good criterion to determine an entry or exit point for a given stock. However, stocks touching new 52-week highs are often predisposed to profit-taking, resulting in pullbacks and trend reversals.

Moreover, given the high price, investors often wonder if the stock is overpriced. While the speculations are not absolutely baseless, all stocks hitting a 52-week high are not necessarily overpriced.

In fact, investors might lose out on top gainers in an attempt to avoid the steep prices.

Stocks such as JAKKS Pacific, GIII Apparel Group, Brinker International and CNA Financial are expected to maintain their momentum and keep scaling new highs. More information on a stock is necessary to understand whether or not there is scope for further upside.

Here, we discuss a strategy to find the right stocks. The technique borrows from the basics of momentum investing and bets on "buy high, sell higher."

52-Week High: A Good Indicator

Many a time, stocks hitting a 52-week high fail to scale higher despite having potential. This is because investors fear that the stocks are overvalued and expect the price to crash.

Overvaluation is natural for most of these stocks as investors' focus (or willingness to pay the premium) has helped them reach the level. But that does not always indicate an impending decline. Factors such as robust sales, surging profit levels, earnings growth prospects and strategic acquisitions that encouraged investors to bet on these stocks could keep them motivated if there is no tangible negative. In other words, the momentum might continue.

Also, when a string of positive developments dominates the market, investors find their under-reaction unwarranted, even if there are no company-specific driving forces.

Here are our four picks of the 14 stocks that made it through the screen:

JAKKS Pacific is a multi-brand company that has been designing and marketing a broad range of toys and consumer products since 1995. The company is capitalizing on its well-established global presence, emphasis on inventive approaches, and partnerships with renowned brands and film franchises.

We consider the company's ability to successfully identify, close and integrate acquisitions to be one of its primary competitive advantages. Meanwhile, it has collaborations with Disney, Skechers, Nickelodeon, Cabbage Patch Kids and Chico to manufacture toys and merchandise related to these brands. JAKK focuses on expanding its reach to include prominent accounts such as Macy's and Amazon in the United States and Sainsbury's in the U.K.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for JAKK's 2023 earnings has moved north by 13.9% to $5.17 per share in the past 30 days. The company surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 61.8%.

G-III Apparel Group is a manufacturer, designer and distributor of apparel and accessories under licensed brands, owned brands and private label brands. G-III Apparel's strategic priorities include driving power brands across categories, enhancing its portfolio via ownership of brands and licensing opportunities, expanding its global reach, maximizing omnichannel capabilities and scaling the private label business.

G-III Apparel has also been making progress on rightsizing the inventory. Management remains optimistic about the company's diversified portfolio of key brands, namely DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, Vilebrequin, Nautica and Halston.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GIII's fiscal 2024 earnings has increased by 15.9% to $3.79 per share in the past 30 days. The company surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate thrice in the trailing four quarters while missing the same once, the average surprise being 541.81%.

Brinker International owns, operates, develops and franchises various restaurants under Chili's Grill & Bar (Chili's) and Maggiano's Little Italy (Maggiano's) brands. Brinker remains steadfast in its goal to drive traffic and revenues through a range of sales-building initiatives such as streamlining its menu and its innovation, strengthening its value proposition, improving food presentation and launching advertising campaigns.

The company is benefiting from improved menu pricing and a favorable menu item mix. Also, focus on various sales-building and expansion initiatives bodes well. The company continues to focus on Chili's international expansion through development agreements with new and existing franchise partners. Chili's turnaround strategies yielded positive results, with traffic and sales moving in a positive direction. The company emphasizes the brand's new restaurant development to drive growth. Chili's has 11-12 new domestic openings and 19-24 new international openings scheduled for fiscal 2024. Brinker is also developing a more advanced CRM program to boost customer frequency.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for EAT's fiscal 2024 earnings has increased 0.8% to $3.57 per share in the past 30 days. The company surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 223.6%.

CNA Financial is one of the most versatile property and casualty (P&C) insurers, maintaining combined ratio at favorable levels despite a tough operating environment. This, in turn, leads to underwriting profitability. It offers commercial P&C insurance products, mainly across the United States. CNA Financial remains well-poised to gain from a rise in new businesses, strong rate, lower net catastrophe losses, improved non-catastrophe current accident year underwriting results and higher net earned premium, which contribute to premium growth across its Specialty, Commercial and International segments.

CNA Financial's fixed-income investment strategy with the highest allocations to diversified investment grade corporates as well as highly rated municipal securities should support investment results in the near term. CNA has been able to maintain the underlying combined ratio below 95 for 13 straight quarters. Through targeted portfolio management strategies, the company made significant progress in successfully repositioning the portfolio underwritten via Lloyd's syndicate in its effort to improve the overall underwriting results of its international operation.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CNA's 2023 earnings has increased 0.5% to $4.41 per share in the past 30 days. The company surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate thrice in the trailing four quarters while missing the same once, the average surprise being 9.24%.

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For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit Zacks.com at: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/2197145/4-stocks-trading-near-52-week-high-with-more-upside-potential

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.

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Zacks.com created the first and best screening system on the web earning the distinction as the "#1 site for screening stocks" by Money Magazine.  But powerful screening tools is just the start. That is why Zacks created the Screen of the Week to highlight profitable stock picking strategies that investors can actively use.

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