Investors looking to maximize gains could benefit from adding stocks with sound liquidity, which encourages business growth. Liquidity measures a company’s capability to meet short-term debt obligations. Stocks with high liquidity levels have always been in demand, owing to their potential to provide maximum returns.

Investors may want to consider adding four top-ranked stocks — Alignment Healthcare, Inc. (ALHC Quick QuoteALHC - Free Report) , Argan, Inc. (AGX Quick QuoteAGX - Free Report) , Agilysys (AGYS Quick QuoteAGYS - Free Report) and Ciena Corporation (CIEN Quick QuoteCIEN - Free Report) — to their portfolios to boost returns.

However, one should be alert enough before investing in such stocks. While a high liquidity level may imply that the company is clearing its dues faster than its peers, it may also indicate that the company is failing to use its assets efficiently.

A balanced assessment of both liquidity and efficiency can help identify truly promising investment opportunities.

Measures to Identify Liquid Stocks

Current Ratio: It measures current assets relative to current liabilities. The ratio gauges a company’s potential to meet short and long-term debt obligations. A current ratio — the working capital ratio — below 1 indicates that the company has more liabilities than assets. A high current ratio does not always suggest that the company is in good financial shape. It may also indicate that the firm failed to utilize its assets significantly. Hence, a range of 1-3 is considered ideal.

Quick Ratio: Unlike the current ratio, the quick ratio — the “acid-test ratio” or “quick assets ratio” — indicates a company’s ability to pay short-term obligations. It considers inventory, excluding current assets, relative to current liabilities. A quick ratio of more than 1 is desirable, like the current ratio.

Cash Ratio: This is the most conservative ratio among the three, considering cash, cash equivalents and invested funds relative to current liabilities. It measures a company’s ability to meet existing debt obligations using the most liquid assets. Though a cash ratio of more than 1 may suggest sound financials, a higher number may indicate inefficiency in cash utilization.

A ratio greater than 1 is always desirable, but it may not always represent a company’s financial condition.

Screening Parameters

To pick the best of the lot, we have added asset utilization — a widely used measure of a company’s efficiency — as one of the screening criteria. Asset utilization is the ratio of total sales in the past 12 months to the last four-quarter average of total assets. Though this ratio varies across industries, companies with a ratio higher than that of their industry can be considered efficient.

We added our proprietary Growth Score to the screen to ensure these liquid and efficient stocks have solid growth potential.

Current Ratio, Quick Ratio, and Cash Ratio between 1 and 3: While liquidity ratios greater than 1 are desirable, significantly high ratios may indicate inefficiency.

Asset utilization is more significant than the industry average: A higher asset utilization than the industry average indicates a company’s efficiency.

Zacks Rank equal to #1 (Strong Buy): Only Strong Buy-rated stocks can get through. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Growth Score less than or equal to B: Back-tested results show that stocks with a Growth Score of A or B handily beat other stocks when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 (Buy).

These criteria have narrowed the universe of more than 7,700 stocks to only 15.

Here are four of the 15 stocks that qualified the screen:

Alignment Healthcare is a clinically focused platform designed to improve the healthcare experience for seniors registered under Medicare. Through its various Medicare Advantage plans, it caters to the various requirements and preferences of seniors.

Revenues in 2026 are expected to be between $5.16 billion and $5.21 billion. First-quarter 2026 revenues of $1.24 billion rose 33.3% year over year. Performance was driven by strength and execution across sales, clinical operations and member retention. At quarter-end, health plan membership was 284,800, up 30.9% from the prior year quarter.

Profitability numbers were also impressive, with adjusted EBITDA up 87.6% year over year to $37.9 million.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ALHC’s 2026 earnings stands at 48 cents per share, unchanged in the past 30 days. The company has a Growth Score of A and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 198.81%, on average.

Argan offers comprehensive construction and related services to the power industry through its operations at Gemma Power Systems and Atlantic Projects.

Driven by favorable project timings in the Power segment, AGX reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenues of $291 million, up 50% year over year. It ended the quarter with a backlog of $2.8 billion. The Power segment remained the top contributor, accounting for 78% of total revenues.

Increasing demand for energy infrastructure, driven by electrification trends, data center expansion, electric vehicles and grid reliability needs, is creating strong opportunities, positioning Argan well for long-term growth. The company expects to add a “handful” of new projects over the next 10-18 months and believes it can execute 10-12 concurrent jobs.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AGX’s fiscal 2027 earnings stands at $12.60 per share, unchanged over the past seven days. The company has a Growth Score of A and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 40.49%, on average.

Agilysys delivers hospitality software solutions and services. AGYS reported fiscal 2026 revenues of $319.3 million, up 15.9% from fiscal 2025. Subscription revenues rose 30.2% year over year and represented 66.6% of total recurring revenues.

The company continues to benefit from strong sales for PMS, POS and add-on modules. Strong backlog combined with ongoing AI innovation position the company for sustained growth and margin expansion.

The outlook remains robust, with fiscal 2027 revenues guided to be in the range of $365–$370 million and subscription revenues expected to grow north of 30% again. The company also expects adjusted EBITDA margin to expand to be 24%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AGYS’ fiscal 2027 earnings is pegged at $2.37 per share, unchanged past seven days. The company has a Growth Score of B.

Ciena, headquartered in Hanover, MD, is a leading provider of optical networking equipment, software and services.

Fiscal second-quarter 2026 revenues rose 39.5% year over year to $1.57 billion, driven by cloud demand and higher adoption of optical networking solutions.

Networking Platforms remained the largest contributor, generating $1.27 billion in revenues and representing 81.1% of total sales. Within the segment, Optical Networking revenues increased to $1.10 billion from $773.6 million a year ago, while Routing and Switching revenues advanced to $174.2 million from $92.7 million.

For fiscal third-quarter 2026, management expects revenues of $1.625 billion (+/- $50 million). Adjusted gross margin is projected at 45% (+/-50 bps), while adjusted operating margin is expected between 19% and 20%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CIEN’s fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $6.52 per share, unchanged in the past seven days. The company has a Growth Score of A and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 19.45%, on average.