During the peak week of this reporting cycle, investing your hard-earned money in stocks showing strong profits and earnings surprises may seem fashionable. However, it can be far more rewarding to look beyond profits and assess whether those gains are being efficiently added to a company’s reserves. While profit remains a key company objective, cash is the lifeblood that sustains operations and reflects a company’s financial resilience.

In this regard, stocks like H World Group Limited (HTHT Quick QuoteHTHT - Free Report) , BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. (BTSG Quick QuoteBTSG - Free Report) , Riley Exploration Permian, Inc. (REPX Quick QuoteREPX - Free Report) and Mistras Group, Inc. (MG Quick QuoteMG - Free Report) emerge as compelling picks, supported by improving cash flow trends.

A company may report profits, yet still struggle with weak cash flow, leaving it vulnerable to bankruptcy while trying to meet its obligations. By contrast, a business with strong cash reserves has greater flexibility to make strategic decisions, pursue promising investments and support growth. It is also better positioned to withstand market turbulence. Assessing a company’s ability to generate cash is essential not only for growing your money but also for protecting it.

Assessing a company’s cash-generating efficiency has become increasingly important amid global economic uncertainty, market disruptions, dislocations and liquidity concerns driven by ongoing 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 five-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:

H World Group Limited is a leading global hospitality group with 12,858 hotels and 1,264,419 rooms in operation in 21 countries as of Dec. 31, 2025. It operates a broad portfolio of hotel brands across different market segments, with a strong presence in China and an expanding international footprint. 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for H World Group’s 2026 earnings has been revised upward by 7.5% to $2.71 per share in the past 60 days. HTHT has a VGM Score of A.

BrightSpring Health Services provides complementary home and community-based pharmacy and health solutions. The company continues to benefit from strong demand for home-based care, a broad service platform and a focus on expanding integrated healthcare offerings.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BrightSpring’s 2026 earnings has been revised upward by 17.5% to $1.61 over the past 60 days. BTSG has a VGM Score of B.

Riley Exploration Permian is an independent oil and natural gas company. It is involved in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids or NGLs, principally in the Permian Basin.

Over the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Riley Exploration Permian’s 2026 earnings has gone up 15.1%. REPX currently has a VGM Score of A.

Mistras Group is a global provider of technology-enabled, non-destructive testing solutions used to evaluate the structural integrity of critical energy, industrial and public infrastructure. 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Mistras Group’s 2026 earnings has been revised 6.1% upward to $1.05 per share in the past 60 days. MG has a VGM Score of A.