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5 Stocks With Recent Price Strength With More Upside Left

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U.S. stock markets have been maintaining their northbound journey in the first quarter of 2024 after an impressive 2023. Year to date, the three major stock indexes — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite — have rallied 4.8%, 10.2% and 10.9%, respectively.

On Mar 20, after its FOMC meeting, the Fed kept the benchmark lending rate constant in the range of 5.25-5.5%. However, the Fed’s latest “dot-plot” (a closely watched matrix of anonymous projections from the 19 officials who comprise the FOMC) shows the benchmark lending rate to come down to 4.625% at mid-point by the end of 2024. The existing mid-point of the Fed fund rate is 5.375%. This indicates three rate cuts of 25 basis points each.

Following the March FOMC decision, the CME FedWatch tool shows a 75% probability that the first rate cut will come in the June FOMC meeting. This probability was 60% just before the Fed’s post-FOMC statement.

Consequently, Wall Street rallied to record highs. The broad-market index — the S&P 500 — closed at 5,224.62 after hitting an all-time high of 5,226.19. The benchmark closed above 5,200 for the first time. The blue-chip Dow recorded an all-time high of 39,529.13 and a closing high of 39,512.13. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite posted a new closing high of 16,369.41.

As a result, a few 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 — QuickLogic Corp. (QUIK - Free Report) , Willdan Group Inc. (WLDN - Free Report) , Betterware de México S.A.P.I. de C.V. (BWMX - Free Report) , Modine Manufacturing Co. (MOD - Free Report) and ADMA Biologics Inc. (ADMA - 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 11.

Let’s discuss five out of these 11 stocks:

QuickLogic is a semiconductor provider of ultra-low power, comprehensive, flexible sensor processing solutions enabling significantly longer battery life for smartphone, wearable, and IoT.

QUIK is the only company integrating multi-core processing, programmable logic, sensor fusion and context aware algorithms, and embedded software. QUIK accelerates the pace of innovation for always-on motion, light, environmental, location, and voice-enabled user experiences.

The stock price of QuickLogic has soared 40.6% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 0.1% over the past 90 days.

Willdan Group is a provider of professional technical and consulting services to utilities, private industry, and public agencies at all levels of government. WLDN enables its clients to realize cost and energy savings by providing a wide range of specialized services.

WLDN assist its clients with a broad range of complementary services relating to: Energy Efficiency and Sustainability, Engineering and Planning, Economic and Financial Consulting, and National Preparedness and Interoperability.

The stock price of Willdan Group has jumped 33.1% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 3.4% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 19.9% over the past 30 days.

Betterware de México is a direct-to-consumer selling company operating mainly in Mexico. BWMX is primarily focused on the home organization and solutions segment. BWMX’s product portfolio includes home organization, kitchen preparation, food containers, smart furniture, technology and mobility, as well as other minor categories.

The stock price of Betterware de México has climbed 32.9% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 27% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 26.3% over the past 30 days.

Modine Manufacturing provides engineered heat transfer systems and heat transfer components for use in on- and off-highway original equipment manufacturer vehicular applications. MOD operates through Climate Solutions and Performance Technologies segments.

MOD offers gas-fired, hydronic, electric, and oil-fired unit heaters; indoor and outdoor duct furnaces, infrared units, perimeter heating products, such as commercial fin-tube radiation, cabinet unit heaters, and convectors, roof-mounted direct- and indirect-fired makeup air units; unit ventilators, single packaged vertical units; precision air conditioning units for data center applications, air handler units, fan walls, chillers, ceiling cassettes, hybrid fan coils, and condensers and condensing units.

The stock price of Modine Manufacturing has surged 27.7% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 18.6% for the next year (ending March 2025). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for next-year earnings has improved 7.2% over the past 60 days.

ADMA Biologics is a specialty immune globulin company. ADMA develops, manufactures and intends to market plasma-based biologics for the treatment and prevention of certain infectious diseases.

ADMA’s target patient populations includes immune-compromised individuals who suffer from an underlying immune deficiency disease or who may be immune-suppressed for medical reasons. ADMA’s lead product candidate, RI-002, which is in phase III clinical trial, is intended for the treatment of primary immune deficiency disease.

The stock price of ADMA Biologics has advanced 22% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 36.4% over the past 30 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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