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5 Stocks With Recent Price Strength to Grab Now

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Wall Street witnessed a strong rally in 2023. The rally in the last two months of the year was most impressive. The three major stock indexes — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite — completed a nine-week-long winning streak.

Market participants are encouraged by the Fed’s clear indication that the interest rate hike cycle of the last two years is complete. Moreover, different measures of inflation rate have also been dwindling steadily since June 2022.

As a result, several stocks have shown price strength. We have selected five stocks likely to gain in the near term on the back of a favorable Zacks Rank. These companies are — GigaCloud Technology Inc. (GCT - Free Report) , Photronics Inc. (PLAB - Free Report) , Griffon Corp. (GFF - Free Report) , Lakeland Industries Inc. (LAKE - Free Report) and Direct Digital Holdings Inc. (DRCT - 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 23.

Let’s discuss five out of these 23 stocks:

GigaCloud Technology is a pioneer of global end-to-end B2B e-commerce solutions for large parcel merchandise. GCT’s marketplace seamlessly connects manufacturers, primarily in Asia, with resellers, primarily in the United States, Asia and Europe, to execute cross-border transactions.

The stock price of GigaCloud Technology has soared 56% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 11% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 17.4% over the past 30 days.

Photronics is engaged in the manufacture and sale of photomask products and services in the United States, Taiwan, Korea, Europe, China, and internationally. PLAB offers photomasks that are used in the manufacture of integrated circuits and flat panel displays and to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers, FDP substrates, and other types of electrical and optical components.

The stock price of Photronics has jumped 48% in the past four weeks. PLAB has an expected earnings growth rate of 27.5% for the current year (ending October 2024). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 15.6% over the past 30 days.

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 regarding acquisition and growth opportunities and divestitures.

The stock price of Griffon has climbed 26.5% in the past four weeks. GFF has an expected earnings growth rate of 1.8% for the current year (ending September 2024). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings improved 13% over the past 60 days.

Lakeland Industries manufactures and sells industrial protective clothing and accessories for the industrial and public protective clothing market worldwide. LAKE offers firefighting and heat protective apparel to protect against fire, high-end chemical protective suits to provide protection from highly concentrated, toxic and/or lethal chemicals, and biological toxins, and limited use/disposable protective clothing, such as coveralls, laboratory coats, shirts, pants, hoods, aprons, sleeves, arm guards, caps, and smocks.

The stock price of Lakeland Industries has surged 24.1% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 10.5% for next year (ending January 2025). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for next-year earnings has improved 5% over the past 30 days.

Direct Digital operates as an end-to-end full-service programmatic advertising platform. DRCT’s platform primarily focuses on providing advertising technology, data-driven campaign optimization, and other solutions to underserved and less efficient markets on both the buy- and sell-side of the digital advertising ecosystem.

DRCT serves various industry verticals, such as travel, healthcare, education, financial services, consumer products, and other sectors with a focus on small and mid-sized businesses.

The stock price of Direct Digital has advanced 22% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 43% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved more than 100% over the past 60 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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