It is not surprising that before an earnings season, every investor looks for stocks that can beat market expectation. This is because investors always try to position themselves ahead of time and look to tap high-quality stocks.
Why Is a Positive Earnings Surprise So Important?
Historically, stocks of companies with solid quarterly earnings (on a nominal basis) tank if they miss or merely meet market expectations. After all, a 20% earnings rise (though apparently looks good) doesn’t tell you if earnings growth has been exhibiting a decelerating trend.
Also, seasonal fluctuations come into play sometimes. If a company’s Q1 is seasonally weak and Q4 strong, then it is likely to report a sequential earnings decline. In such cases, growth rates are misleading while judging the true health of a company.
Meanwhile, after much brainstorming and analysis of companies’ financials and initiatives, Wall Street analysts project earnings of companies. They, in fact, club their insights and a company’s guidance when deriving an earnings estimate.
Thus, outperforming that estimate is almost equivalent to beating the company’s own expectation as well as the market perception. And if the margin of earnings surprise is big, it typically drives the stock higher right after the release. Thus, more than anything else, an earnings surprise can push a stock higher.
How to Find Stocks That Can Beat?
Now, finding stocks that have the potential to beat on the bottom line may be investors’ dream but not an easy job. One way to do this is to look at the earnings surprise history of the company.
An impressive track in this regard generally acts as a catalyst in sending a stock higher. It indicates the company’s ability to surpass estimates. And investors generally believe that the company will apply the same secret sauce to execute yet another earning beat in its next release.
The Winning Strategy
In order to shortlist stocks that are likely to come up with an earnings surprise, we chose the following as our primary screening parameters.
Last EPS Surprise greater than or equal to 10%:
Stocks delivering positive surprise in the last quarter tend to surprise again.
Average EPS Surprise in the last four quarters greater than 20%:
We lifted the bar for outperformance slightly higher by setting the average earnings surprise for the last four quarters at 20%.
Average EPS Surprise in the last two quarters greater than 20%:
This points to a more consistent surprise history and makes the case for another surprise even stronger.
In addition, we place a few other criteria that raise the chance of a positive surprise.
Zacks Rank less than or equal to 2:
Only companies with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) rating can get through.
Earnings ESP
greater than zero:
A stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank of #1, 2 or 3 for an earnings beat, per our proven model.
In order to zero in on those that have long-term growth potential and high trading liquidity we have added the following parameters too:
Next 3–5 Years Estimated EPS Growth (Per Year) greater than 10%:
Solid expected earnings growth exhibits the stock’s long-term growth prospects.
Average 20-day Volume greater than 100,000:
High trading volume implies that the stocks have adequate liquidity.
A handful of criteria has narrowed down the universe from over 7,700 stocks to six.
Here are five out of the six stocks:
Alkermes
ALKS
:
Dublin, Ireland-based Alkermes plc was formed by the September 2011 merger of Waltham, MA-based Alkermes, Inc. and Elan Drug Technologies (EDT), the drug delivery unit of Elan Corporation, plc. Elan was acquired by Perrigo in 2013. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #1. You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here
.
The earnings surprise of ALKS for the past four quarters is 350.48%.
Driven Brands Holdings
DRVN
: The company is an automotive services company principally in North America. It has a Zacks Rank #1.
The earnings surprise of DRVN for the past four quarters is 30.07%.
Tesla
TSLA
: The Zacks Rank #2 EV maker Tesla has evolved into a dynamic technology innovator. The company’s flagship Model 3 is the best-selling EV model in the United States.
The earnings surprise of TSLA for the past four quarters is 41.27%.
BanColombia
CIB
: BanColombia is Colombia’s largest bank in terms of assets and also has the largest market participation in deposit products and loans. It has a Zacks Rank #1.
The earnings surprise of CIB for the past four quarters is 71.56%.
TFI International
TFII
: This is a Zacks Rank #2 company belonging to the transportation and logistics industry.
The earnings surprise of TFII for the past four quarters is 28.91%.
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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.
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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:
http://www.zacks.com/performance
.
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