Back to top

Image: Bigstock

NVIDIA, QCOM & 1 Other S&P 500 Stock Show Solid Earnings Growth

Read MoreHide Full Article

The S&P 500 recently topped the 6000 mark, banking on the post-election rally. The possibility of reducing corporate taxes and deregulation under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration buoyed investors’ sentiment. October’s in-line inflation data also raised hopes of further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, a boon for the stock market.

Therefore, it’s prudent for investors to place their bets on the S&P 500 stocks that exhibit strong earnings growth and can take advantage of the overall bullish trend. After all, if the company doesn’t make money, it won’t survive. Earnings are also considered the most important variable influencing share prices. But, expectations of earnings play a striking role.

To that end, NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) , QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM - Free Report) , and Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET - Free Report) are currently exhibiting superb earnings growth.

Earnings Estimates & Share Price Movements

Frequently, we have seen the stock price decline despite earnings growth and a rally in price following an earnings decline. This is largely the result of a company’s earnings failing to meet market expectations.

Earnings estimates embody analysts’ opinions on factors such as sales growth, product demand, competitive industry environment, profit margins, and cost control. Thus, earnings estimates serve as a valuable tool, while making investment decisions. Earnings estimates aid analysts in evaluating cash flow to determine a firm’s fair value.

Thus, investors should watch for stocks primed for significant growth. Hence, investors need to buy stocks with historical earnings growth and are seeing a rise in quarterly and annual earnings estimates.

We use that basis to determine our stock selections using Zack’s Research Wizard Tool. 

Screening Measures Using Research Wizard:

To shortlist stocks that have striking earnings growth and positive estimate revisions, we have added the following parameters:

Zacks Rank less than or equal to 2 (Only Zacks' 'Buys' and 'Strong Buys' are allowed. With the Zacks Rank proving itself to be one of the best rating systems out there, this is a great way to start things off.)

5-Year Historical EPS Growth (%) greater than X-Industry (stocks with a strong EPS growth history).

% Change EPS F(0)/F(-1) greater than or equal to 5 (companies that saw year-over-year earnings growth of 5% or more in the last reported fiscal).

% Change Q1 Estimates over the last 4 weeks greater than zero (stocks that have seen their current quarter earnings estimates revised higher in the last 4 weeks).

% Change F1 Estimates over the last 1 week greater than zero (stocks that have seen their annual earnings estimates revised higher in the last 1 week).

% Change F1 Estimates over the last 4 weeks greater than zero (stocks that have seen their annual earnings estimates revised higher in the last 4 weeks).

The above criteria narrowed the universe of around 7,839 stocks to only 28. Here are the top three stocks:

NVIDIA  

NVIDIA Corporation leads in visual computing technologies and invented the graphic processing unit or GPU (read more: Buy Profitable S&P 500 Stocks as the Index Tops 6000: NVIDIA & 2 More). 

The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 116.9%. NVIDIA currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

QUALCOMM

QUALCOMM is a fabless semiconductor company. QTI, a division of Qualcomm, designs high-performance chip designs for various tech applications.

The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 8.7%. QUALCOMM currently has a Zacks Rank #2. 

Arista Networks

Arista Networks provides cloud networking for data centers and computing environments.

The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 24.8%. Arista Networks currently has a Zacks Rank #2. 

You can sign 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.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


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


QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM) - free report >>

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) - free report >>

Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET) - free report >>

Published in