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4 Must-Buy Stocks for Remarkable Earnings Acceleration

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Companies displaying incessant earnings growth will continue to captivate almost everyone in the investment world, from top brass to research analysts. This is because earnings are a measure of the money a company is making. Still, earnings acceleration works better when lifting the stock price.

Studies have shown that most successful stocks have seen an acceleration in earnings before an uptick in the stock price. Some of the notable companies to have witnessed solid earnings acceleration as of now are Protagonist Therapeutics (PTGX - Free Report) , AxoGen (AXGN - Free Report) , Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) and Phunware (PHUN - Free Report) .

Earnings acceleration is the incremental growth in a company’s earnings per share (EPS). In other words, if the rate of a company’s quarter-over-quarter earnings growth increases within a stipulated time frame, it can be called earnings acceleration.

In the case of earnings growth, you pay for something that is already reflected in the stock price. But earnings acceleration helps spot stocks that haven’t yet caught the attention of investors. Once secured, it will invariably lead to a rally in the share price. This is because earnings acceleration considers both the direction and magnitude of growth rates.

An increasing percentage of earnings growth means that the company is fundamentally sound and has been on the right track for a considerable period. Meanwhile, a sideways percentage of earnings growth indicates a period of consolidation or slowdown, while a decelerating percentage of earnings growth may sometimes drag prices down.

Screening Parameters

Let us look at stocks for which the last two quarter-over-quarter percentage EPS growth rates exceed the previous periods’ growth rates. The projected quarter-over-quarter percentage EPS growth rates are also expected to be higher than the previous periods’ growth rates.

EPS % Projected Growth (Q1)/(Q0) greater than EPS % Growth (Q0)/(Q-1): The projected growth rate for the current quarter (Q1) over the completed quarter (Q0) has to be greater than the growth rate from the completed quarter (Q0) over one quarter ago (Q-1).

EPS % Growth (Q0)/(Q-1) greater than EPS % Growth (Q-1)/(Q-2): The growth rate for the completed quarter (Q0) over one quarter ago (Q-1) has to be greater than the growth rate from one quarter ago (Q-1) over two quarters ago (Q-2).

EPS % Growth (Q-1)/(Q-2) greater than EPS % Growth (Q-2)/(Q-3): The growth rate from one quarter ago (Q-1) over two quarters ago (Q-2) has to be greater than the growth rate from two quarters ago (Q-2) over three quarters ago (Q-3).

In addition to this, we have added the following parameters:

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

Average 20-day volume greater than or equal to 50,000: High trading volume implies that the stocks have adequate liquidity.

The above criteria narrowed the universe of around 7,735 stocks to only four. Here are the stocks:

Protagonist Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. It currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). PTGX’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 180.6%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.

AxoGen engages in developing and marketing surgical solutions for peripheral nerves. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. AXGN’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 46.7%.

Western Digital is a leading developer and manufacturer of data storage devices and solutions based on NAND flash and hard disk drive technologies. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. WDC’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 47.6%.

Phunware provides a cloud platform for mobile. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. PHUN’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 39.9%.

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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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