Play Likely Earnings Beat With These 5 Top-Ranked Stocks

Sanghamitra Saha
·5-min read

It is not surprising that before an earnings season, every investor looks for stocks that can beat market expectations. This is because investors always try to position themselves ahead of time and look to tap stocks that are high-quality in nature.

In this regard, we ran a screener that yielded MGM Resorts International MGM, Burlington Stores BURL, Sterling Infrastructure Inc. STRL, Dropbox DBX and DaVita DVA as the likely winners on the earnings beat potential.

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.

On the other hand, 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 slight 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 push up 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 to happen, as 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 only eight.

Here are five out of eight stocks:

MGM Resorts International: The Zacks Rank #2 holding company primarily owns and operates casino resorts through wholly owned subsidiaries. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The average earnings surprise of MGM for the past four quarters is 27.31%. MGM is expected to post earnings and revenue growth of 15.25% and 5.36%, respectively, for the current quarter.

Burlington Stores: Zacks Rank #2 company operates offers products such as ladies sportswear, menswear, youth apparel, baby furniture, accessories, home decor and gifts, and coats.

The average earnings surprise of BURL for the past four quarters is 21.66%. Burlington Stores is expected to record earnings and revenue growth of 51.67% and 11.05%, respectively, for the current quarter.

Sterling Infrastructure: The company operates through subsidiaries within segments, specializing in E-Infrastructure, Building and Transportation Solutions principally in the United States. Currently, the company carries a Zacks Rank #2.

The average earnings surprise of STRL for the past four quarters is 22.33%. Sterling Infrastructure is expected to record earnings and revenue growth of 11.81% and 11.67%, respectively, for the current quarter.

Dropbox: The Zacks Rank #1 company offers a cloud-based platform that businesses and individuals can create, access and share digital content globally.

The average earnings surprise of DBX for the past four quarters is 13.14%. Dropbox is likely to report earnings and revenue growth of 1.96% and 1.15%, respectively, for the current quarter.

DaVita: The Zacks Rank #2 company is a leading provider of dialysis services in the United States to patients suffering from chronic kidney failure, also known as end-stage renal disease.

The average earnings surprise of DVA for the past four quarters is 29.35%. DaVita is expected to post earnings and revenue growth of 18.75% and 5.43%, respectively, for the current quarter.

You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and test them first before taking the investment plunge.

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.

Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today.

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.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

DaVita Inc. (DVA) : Free Stock Analysis Report

MGM Resorts International (MGM) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (STRL) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Burlington Stores, Inc. (BURL) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Dropbox, Inc. (DBX) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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