Buy These 5 Stocks With Attractive Sales Growth Right Now

Steady sales growth is vital to the survival of any business. Sales growth not only offers an insight into product demand and pricing power, it also is important for growth projections and strategic decision making.

Nonetheless, investors often fail to consider sales growth as a dependable metric. This might be because of investors’ preconceived notion that a company’s stock price is typically sensitive to its earnings momentum.

But investors must look for a strong relationship between sales growth levels and the value of an enterprise. This is because in cases where companies incur a loss, albeit transitorily, they are valued on their revenues, as top-line growth (or decline) is usually an indicator of a company’s future performance.

Further, investors should make sure that sales are not only increasing but the growth rate is rising as well. Sales growth rate for the current year should exceed the prior year’s growth.

Therefore, the Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio can turn out to be an appropriate metric for stock valuation. This metric’s importance lies in the fact that management has limited opportunities to manipulate revenues, unlike earnings.

However, 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 a more dependable strategy. Substantial cash in hand and a steady cash flow give a company more flexibility with respect to business decisions and investments.

Picking the 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.

Price-to-Sales (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 13 stocks that qualified the screening:

Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS) provides electronic design automation software products used to design and test integrated circuits. This Mountain View, CA-based company’s expected sales growth rate for fiscal 2019 is 6.3% and it carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Based in Mayfield Village, OH, The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) provides personal and commercial auto insurance, residential property insurance, and other specialty property-casualty insurance and related services. Expected sales growth rate for 2019 is 14.5% and the stock sports a Zacks Rank #1.

Equinix, Inc. (REIT) (NASDAQ:EQIX) , headquartered in Redwood City, CA, connects the world's leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the most-interconnected data centres. Its expected sales growth rate for 2019 is 9.4%. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2, at present.

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) manufactures and sells electronic instruments and electromechanical devices. This Berwyn, PA-based company’s sales are expected to increase at the rate of 8.1% for 2019. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, Carlisle Companies Incorporated (NYSE:CSL) is a diversified manufacturing company. This Zacks Rank #1 company’s expected sales growth rate for 2019 is 8.1%.

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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

Equinix, Inc. (EQIX): Free Stock Analysis Report

Synopsys, Inc. (SNPS): Free Stock Analysis Report

Carlisle Companies Incorporated (CSL): Free Stock Analysis Report

The Progressive Corporation (PGR): Free Stock Analysis Report

AMETEK, Inc. (AME): Free Stock Analysis Report

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