Buy These 5 Top-Ranked Stocks With Robust Sales Growth

Investors often fail to consider sales growth as a dependable metric when it comes to selecting stocks. This might be because of their preconceived notion that a company’s stock price is typically sensitive to its earnings momentum. However, betting on stocks based on such a perception may not prove worthwhile.

It’s worth keeping in mind that in cases when companies incur a loss, althoughbriefly, they are valued on their revenues not earnings, as top-line growth (or decline) is usually an indicator of a company’s future earnings performance.

Further, in contrast with price to earnings and price to book ratios, which can turn negative and cease to be relevant, the price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is available even for firms that have hit choppy waters.

Also, a company can improve earnings by resorting to cost control measures while maintaining stable revenues. However, superior profits could be achieved through continued revenue growth.

Further, earnings and book value are largely influenced by several factors. However, management has limited opportunities to manipulate sales, which further underscores the importance of P/S ratio.

A huge sales number does not necessarily convert into profits. Hence, considering a company’s cash position along with its sales number can prove to be more prudent. Substantial cash in hand and a steady cash flow lend a company more flexibility with respect to business decisions and investments.

Selecting Winning Stocks

In order to shortlist stocks that have witnessed impressive sales growth along with a high cash balance, we have selected 5-Year Historical Sales Growth (%) greater than X-Industry and Cash Flow more than $500 million as our main screening parameters.

But sales growth and cash strength are not the absolute criteria for selecting stocks. So, we added certain other factors to arrive at a winning strategy.

P/S Ratio less than X-Industry: This metric determines the value placed on each dollar of a company’s revenues. The lower the ratio, the better it is for picking a stock since the investor is paying less for each unit of sales.

% Change F1 Sales Estimate Revisions (four weeks) greater than X-Industry: Estimate revisions, better than the industry, are often seen to trigger an increase in stock price.

Operating Margin (average last five years) greater than 5%: Operating margin measures how much every dollar of a company's sales translates into profits. A high ratio indicates that the company has good cost control and sales are increasing faster than costs — an optimal situation for it.

Return on Equity (ROE) greater than 5%: This metric will ensure that sales growth is translated into profits and the company is not hoarding cash. A high ROE means the company is spending wisely and is in all likelihood profitable.

Zacks Rank less than or equal to 2: Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) stocks are known to outperform irrespective of the market environment. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Here are five of the 21 stocks that qualified the screening:

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) , based in San Francisco, CA, operates as a multi-channel specialty retailer of various products for home. Its expected sales growth rate for fiscal 2021 is 2.7%. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Based in Windsor, CT, SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) provides software products and software-enabled services to financial services and healthcare industries. Expected sales growth rate for 2020 is 3.1%. The stock sports a Zacks Rank #1.

North Reading, MA, Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) designs, develops, manufactures, sells and supports automatic test equipment. The company’s expected sales growth rate for 2020 is 10.4% and it sports a Zacks Rank #1.

First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN) , headquartered in Memphis, TN, provides various financial services. Its expected sales growth rate for 2020 is 36.5%, and the stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) is a business development company. This New York-based company’s sales are expected to increase 5.22% in 2020. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.

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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: https://www.zacks.com/performance

First Horizon National Corporation (FHN): Free Stock Analysis Report

Ares Capital Corporation (ARCC): Free Stock Analysis Report

SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (SSNC): Free Stock Analysis Report

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM): Free Stock Analysis Report

Teradyne, Inc. (TER): Free Stock Analysis Report

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