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Forget Profit, Pick These 4 Stocks With Increasing Cash Flows

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Key Takeaways

  • Four stocks were screened for increasing cash flow trends and solid financial resilience.
  • RadNet, Mission Produce, Castle Biosciences and FreightCar America met all screening criteria.
  • Each company showed improved earnings estimates and strong VGM Scores of A or B.

We are in one of the busiest weeks of the current reporting cycle, and betting on stocks based on profit numbers and earnings surprises is in trend. But looking beyond profits and figuring out a company’s cash position can be far more rewarding.

In this regard, stocks such as RadNet, Inc. (RDNT - Free Report) , Mission Produce, Inc. (AVO - Free Report) , Castle Biosciences, Inc. (CSTL - Free Report) and FreightCar America, Inc. (RAIL - Free Report) are worth buying.

Even though profit is a company’s goal, cash is necessary for its existence, development and success, and it is indeed a measure of resiliency. A profitable company can still encounter cash shortages and risk bankruptcy while meeting its obligations. However, strong cash flow provides the company with resilience against market volatility, enabling strategic flexibility, the pursuit of investment opportunities and sustained growth momentum.

Assessing a company's cash-generating efficiency has become increasingly important in today’s environment, marked by global economic uncertainties, market disruptions and liquidity challenges stemming from geopolitical tensions.

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 four stocks that qualified the screening:

RadNet, Inc., is a national market leader providing high-quality, cost-effective diagnostic imaging services through a network of fully-owned and operated outpatient imaging centers. RadNet offers radiology IT and AI solutions through its DeepHealth brand, and other products and services for diagnostic imaging clients.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings per share has improved significantly to 45 cents from 16 cents over the past three months. RDNT has a VGM Score of B.

Mission Produce sources, produces, packs, distributes and markets avocados principally in the United States and internationally. The company serves retail, wholesale and foodservice customers.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Mission Produce’s fiscal 2025 earnings has been revised upward by 13.6% to 67 cents per share over the past two months. AVO has a VGM Score of A.

Castle Biosciences is a diagnostic company providing tests for skin cancers, Barrett’s esophagus and uveal melanoma, with R&D efforts targeting additional high-need conditions like moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis.

Estimates for Castle Biosciences’ 2025 earnings have improved over the months, depicting analysts’ optimism about the company’s prospects. Also, CSTL has a VGM Score of B.

FreightCar America designs, manufactures and supplies railroad freight cars, along with railcar parts and components. The company also provides railcar repair services, full railcar rebody solutions and railcar conversion projects that return idle rail assets to active, revenue-generating use.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FreightCar America’s current-year earnings has moved 14.9% north over the past three months to 54 cents per share. RAIL currently has a VGM Score of A.

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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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