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How to Boost Your Portfolio with Top Retail and Wholesale Stocks Set to Beat Earnings

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Two factors often determine stock prices in the long run: earnings and interest rates. Investors can't control the latter, but they can focus on a company's earnings results every quarter.

Life and the stock market are both about expectations, and rising above what is expected is often rewarded, while falling short can come with negative consequences. Investors might want to try to capture stronger returns by finding positive earnings surprises.

The ability to identify stocks that are likely to top quarterly earnings expectations can be profitable, but it's no simple task. Here at Zacks, our Earnings ESP filter helps make things easier.

The Zacks Earnings ESP, Explained

The Zacks Earnings ESP, or Expected Surprise Prediction, aims to find earnings surprises by focusing on the most recent analyst revisions. The basic premise is that if an analyst reevaluates their earnings estimate ahead of an earnings release, it means they likely have new information that could possibly be more accurate.

The core of the ESP model is comparing the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate, where the resulting percentage difference between the two equals the Expected Surprise Prediction. The Zacks Rank is also factored into the ESP metric to better help find companies that appear poised to top their next bottom-line consensus estimate, which will hopefully help lift the stock price.

In fact, when we combined a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better and a positive Earnings ESP, stocks produced a positive surprise 70% of the time. Perhaps most importantly, using these parameters has helped produce 28.3% annual returns on average, according to our 10 year backtest.

Stocks with a #3 (Hold) ranking, which is most stocks covered at 60%, are expected to perform in-line with the broader market. But stocks that fall into the #2 (Buy) and #1 (Strong Buy) ranking, or the top 15% and top 5% of stocks, respectively, should outperform the market. Strong Buy stocks should outperform more than any other rank.

Should You Consider Carvana?

The last thing we will do today, now that we have a grasp on the ESP and how powerful of a tool it can be, is to quickly look at a qualifying stock. Carvana (CVNA - Free Report) holds a #2 (Buy) at the moment and its Most Accurate Estimate comes in at $0.25 a share 26 days away from its upcoming earnings release on October 30, 2024.

CVNA has an Earnings ESP figure of +12.12%, which, as explained above, is calculated by taking the percentage difference between the $0.25 Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.22. Carvana is one of a large database of stocks with positive ESPs. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.

CVNA is part of a big group of Retail and Wholesale stocks that boast a positive ESP, and investors may want to take a look at Builders FirstSource (BLDR - Free Report) as well.

Builders FirstSource, which is readying to report earnings on November 6, 2024, sits at a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) right now. It's Most Accurate Estimate is currently $3.16 a share, and BLDR is 33 days out from its next earnings report.

For Builders FirstSource, the percentage difference between its Most Accurate Estimate and its Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.10 is +2%.

CVNA and BLDR's positive ESP metrics may signal that a positive earnings surprise for both stocks is on the horizon.

Find Stocks to Buy or Sell Before They're Reported

Use the Zacks Earnings ESP Filter to turn up stocks with the highest probability of positively, or negatively, surprising to buy or sell before they're reported for profitable earnings season trading. Check it out here >>


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Builders FirstSource, Inc. (BLDR) - free report >>

Carvana Co. (CVNA) - free report >>

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