September and October are known as the most disrupting months on Wall Street. Surprisingly, this year, September was quite favorable for market participants. An aggressive 50 basis-point interest rate cut by the Fed boosted investors’ confidence in risky assets on equities.
The trading pattern in October has followed suit. Month to date, all three major stock indexes — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite — are trading in positive territory.
Consequently, a handful of stocks have shown price strength. We have primarily targeted stocks that have recently been on a bull run. Such stocks have a high chance of carrying the momentum forward.
Five such stocks are – Idaho Strategic Resources Inc. IDR, Qifu Technology Inc. (QFIN), Sezzle Inc. SEZL, Corcept Therapeutics Inc. CORT and FinWise Bancorp FINW.
If a stock continuously witnesses an uptrend, there must be a solid reason or it would have probably crashed. So, looking at stocks capable of beating the benchmark that they have set for themselves seems rational.
However, recent price strength alone cannot create magic. Therefore, other relevant parameters are needed to create a successful investment strategy.
Here’s how you should create the screen to shortlist the current as well as the potential winners.
Percentage Change in Price (4 Weeks) greater than zero: This criterion shows that the stock has moved higher in the last four weeks.
Percentage Change Price (12 Weeks) greater than 10: This indicates that the stock has seen momentum over the last three months. This lowers the risk of choosing stocks that may have drawn attention due to the overwhelming performance of the overall market in a very short period.
Zacks Rank 1: No matter whether market conditions are good or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) have a proven history of outperformance. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Average Broker Rating 1: This indicates that brokers are also highly hopeful about the stock’s future performance.
Current Price greater than 5: The stocks must all be trading at a minimum of $5.
Current Price/ 52-Week High-Low Range more than 85%: This criterion filters stocks that are trading near their respective 52-week highs. It indicates that these are strong enough in terms of price.
Just these few criteria narrowed down the search from over 7,700 stocks to 10.
Let’s discuss five out of these 10 stocks:
Idaho Strategic Resources Inc. is a resource-based company, engaged in exploring developing, and extracting gold, silver, and base metal mineral resources in the Greater Coeur d'Alene Mining District of North Idaho.
IDR’s portfolio of mineral properties includes the Golden Chest Mine, a producing gold mine located in the Murray Gold Belt (MGB) of North Idaho, approximately 1,500 acres of patented mineral property and approximately 5,000 acres of nearby and adjacent unpatented mineral property located within the MGB, rare earth element projects located in the Idaho REE-Th Belt near Salmonand early-stage exploration properties in Central Idaho.
The stock price of Idaho Strategic Resources has jumped 29.6% in the past four weeks. The company has expected earnings growth of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved more than 100% over the last 60 days.
Qifu Technology Inc. operates as a credit-tech platform under the 360 Jietiao brand in the People's Republic of China. QFIN provides credit-driven services that match borrowers with financial institutions to conduct customer acquisition, initial and credit screening, advanced risk assessment, credit assessment, fund matching, and other post-facilitation services and platform services. QFIN also offers e-commerce loans, enterprise loans, and invoice loans to SME owners. QFIN serves financial institutions, consumers, and small- and micro-enterprises.
The stock price of Qifu Technology has climbed 29.3% in the past four weeks. The company has expected earnings growth of 38% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 2.8% over the last 30 days.
Sezzle Inc. operates as a technology-enabled payments company primarily in the United States and Canada. SEZL provides its proprietary payments solution in-store and at online retail stores that connect consumers with merchants.
SEZL also offers the Sezzle Platform, which provides a payments solution for consumers that extends credit at the point-of-sale, allowing consumers to purchase and receive the ordered merchandise at the time of sale while paying in installments over time.
The stock price of Sezzle has surged 18.4% in the past four weeks. The company has expected earnings growth of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 37.2% over the last 90 days.
Corcept Therapeutics Inc. is engaged in the discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of severe endocrinologic, oncologic, metabolic, and neurologic disorders in the United States. CORT offers Korlym tablets medication for the treatment of hyperglycemia secondary to hypercortisolism in adult patients with endogenous cushing's syndrome, and for those who have type 2 diabetes mellitus or glucose intolerance and have failed surgery or are not candidates for surgery.
CORT is also developing relacorilant, which is in phase III clinical trial for the treatment of Cushing's syndrome, treatment for adrenal cancer and cortisol excess, which is in phase 1b clinical trial, treatment for prostate cancer which is in phase II clinical trial and nab-paclitaxel in combination with relacorilant, which is in phase III clinical trial to treat platinum-resistant ovarian tumors.
The stock price of Corcept Therapeutics has rallied 16.2% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 19.2% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings improved 1.8% over the last 60 days.
FinWise Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for FinWise Bank, which provides various banking products and services to individual and corporate customers in Utah. FINW offers various deposit products, including interest and noninterest-bearing demand accounts, health savings account demand deposits, NOW and money market accounts, and checking and savings accounts, as well as time deposits and certificates of deposits.
FINW also provides loans, including consumer, small business administration, commercial, commercial real estate, and residential real estate loans. In addition, FINW offers debit cards, remote deposit capture, online banking, mobile banking, and direct deposit services, and business accounts and cash management services, such as business checking and savings accounts, and treasury services.
The stock price of FinWise Bancorp has advanced 9.2% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 3.9% for next year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for next-year earnings has improved 4.4% over the last 90 days.
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.
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Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (CORT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Qifu Technology, Inc. (QFIN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
FinWise Bancorp (FINW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc. (IDR) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Sezzle Inc. (SEZL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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