How to Find Strong Buy Computer and Technology Stocks Using the Zacks Rank
Whether you’re a growth, value, income, or momentum-focused investor, building a successful investment portfolio takes skill, research, and a little bit of luck.
But what’s the best way to find the right combination of stocks? Because funding things like your retirement, your kids’ college tuition, or your short- and long-term savings goals will definitely require significant returns.
Enter the Zacks Rank.
What is the Zacks Rank?
The Zacks Rank, which is a unique, proprietary stock-rating model, employs earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company’s earnings expectations, that makes building a winning portfolio easier.
There are four main factors behind the Zacks Rank: Agreement, Magnitude, Upside, and Surprise.
Agreement is the extent to which all brokerage analysts are revising their earnings estimates in the same direction. The greater the percentage of analysts revising their estimates higher, the better chance the stock will outperform.
Magnitude is the size of the recent change in the consensus estimate for the current and next fiscal years.
Upside is the difference between the most accurate estimate, which is calculated by Zacks, and the consensus estimate.
Surprise is made up of a company’s last few quarters’ earnings per share surprises; companies with a positive earnings surprise are more likely to beat expectations in the future.
These four factors are assigned a raw score that’s recalculated every night, which is then compiled into the ranking system. Stocks are classified into five groups using this data, ranging from “Strong Buy” to “Strong Sell.”
The Power of Institutional Investors
The Zacks Rank also allows individual investors, or retail investors, to benefit from the power of institutional investors.
These professionals manage the trillions of dollars invested in hedge funds, mutual funds, and investment banks, and studies have shown that they can and do move the market because of the large amounts of money they invest with. Thus, the market tends to move in the same direction as institutional investors.
In order to figure out the fair value of a company and its shares, these investors will build valuation models focused on earnings and earnings expectations. Because if you raise estimates for the bottom line, it creates a higher fair value for a company.
With these changes, institutional investors will act, usually buying stocks with rising estimates and selling those with falling estimates. An increase in earnings expectations can potentially lead to higher stock prices and bigger gains for the investor.
Because it can take a long time for an institutional investor to build a position — sometimes weeks, if not months — retail investors who get in at the first sign of upward revisions have a distinct advantage over these larger investors, and can benefit from the expected institutional buying that will follow.
Not only can the Zacks Rank help you take advantage of trends in earnings estimate revisions, but it can also provide a way to get into stocks that are highly sought after by professionals.
How to Invest with the Zacks Rank
The Zacks Rank is known for transforming investment portfolios. In fact, a portfolio of Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks has beaten the market in 26 of the last 32 years, with an average annual return of +25.41{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add}.
Moreover, stocks with a new #1 (Strong Buy) ranking have some of the biggest profit potential, while those that fell to a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) have some of the worst.
Let’s take a look at Cirrus Logic (CRUS), which was added to the Zacks Rank #1 list on February 2, 2022.
Headquarters in Austin, TX, Cirrus Logic is a fabless semiconductor supplier, which develops, manufactures and markets analog, mixed-signal, and audio DSP integrated circuits (ICs).
For fiscal 2022, six analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.94 to $6.31 per share. CRUS boasts an average earnings surprise of 16{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add}.
Earnings are forecasted to see growth of 37.8{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add} for the current fiscal year, and sales are expected to increase 25{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add}.
Additionally, CRUS has climbed higher over the past four weeks, gaining 2.3{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add}. The S&P 500 is down 3.9{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add} in comparison.
Bottom Line
With a #1 (Strong Buy) ranking, positive trend in earnings estimate revisions, and strong market momentum, Cirrus Logic should be on investors’ shortlist.
If you want even more information on the Zacks Ranks, or one of our many other investing strategies, check out the Zacks Education home page.
Discover Today’s Top Stocks
Our private Zacks #1 Rank List, based on our quantitative Zacks Rank stock-rating system, has more than doubled the S&P 500 since 1988. Applying the Zacks Rank in your own trading can boost your investing returns on your very next trade. See Today’s Zacks #1 Rank List >>
7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days
Just released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers “Most Likely for Early Price Pops.”
Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +25.4{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add} per year. So be sure to give these hand-picked 7 your immediate attention.
Cirrus Logic, Inc. (CRUS): Free Stock Analysis Report
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
