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Forget Profit, Bet on 4 Stocks With Increasing Cash Flows

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Key Takeaways

  • TILE is highlighted for cash flow at or above its five-year average and a higher 2025 earnings estimate.
  • GLDD meets the rising cash-flow screen and has seen its 2025 earnings estimate move up this month.
  • NRIM qualifies as improving cash flow aligns with an upgraded current-year earnings forecast.

Profit remains an essential objective for any business, yet steady cash flow is what truly sustains operations and long-term growth. Even profitable companies can stumble or face bankruptcy if they lack sufficient liquidity to meet day-to-day obligations. In contrast, firms with strong cash reserves are better equipped to navigate market volatility and unexpected disruptions, using available funds as a buffer against financial stress.

In this regard, stocks like Interface, Inc. (TILE - Free Report) , Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD - Free Report) , Northrim BanCorp, Inc. (NRIM - Free Report) and Strattec Security Corporation (STRT - Free Report) are worth buying.

A healthy cash position indicates that profits are being efficiently channeled to the company’s reserves. This offers flexibility to make decisions, chase potential investments and fuel its growth engine. It is indeed an accurate indicator of a company’s financial health and a measure of resiliency.

Analyzing a company’s cash-generating efficiency has indeed become more relevant amid uncertainties in the global economy, market disruptions and dislocations, as well as liquidity concerns.

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 out of eight stocks that qualified the screening:

Interface is a global flooring solution provider, delivering a range of carpet tile and resilient flooring, which it markets under the Interface and FLOR brands, for both commercial and residential environments.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Interface’s 2025 earnings has been revised upward 8.8% to $1.85 per share in the past month. TILE has a VGM Score of A.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is the largest provider of dredging services in the United States, conducting business to maintain and deepen shipping channels, reclaim land from the ocean and renourish storm-damaged coastline.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock’s 2025 earnings has moved upward by 7.8% to $1.10 per share over the past month. GLDD has a VGM Score of A.

Northrim BanCorp is a full-service commercial bank that provides a full range of personal and business banking services. It is the parent company of Northrim Bank, an Alaska-based community bank, leveraging deep local expertise and strong customer-first service across the state.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Northrim BanCorp’s current-year earnings has improved 6.4% over the past month to $2.50. NRIM has a VGM Score of A.

Strattec Security provides smart vehicle access, security and authorization solutions for the global automotive industry. Its portfolio spans power access components, latches, start systems, keys, fobs, locksets, door handles and related products, supporting functions such as powered liftgates, sliding doors and tailgate operations.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Strattec Security’s fiscal 2026 earnings has risen 23.3% over the past month to $5.24. STRT 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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