Investors seek growth stocks to capitalize on above-average growth in financials that help these securities grab the market’s attention and produce exceptional returns. But finding a great growth stock is not easy at all.
By their very nature, these stocks carry above-average risk and volatility. Moreover, if a company’s growth story is over or nearing its end, betting on it could lead to significant loss.
However, the task of finding cutting-edge growth stocks is made easy with the help of the Zacks Growth Style Score (part of the
Zacks Style Scores
system), which looks beyond the traditional growth attributes to analyze a company’s real growth prospects.
iRadimed (IRMD) is one such stock that our proprietary system currently recommends. The company not only has a favorable Growth Score, but also carries a top Zacks Rank.
Research shows that stocks carrying the best growth features consistently beat the market. And returns are even better for stocks that possess the combination of a Growth Score of A or B and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy).
Here are three of the most important factors that make the stock of this maker of IV devices that can be used in MRI machines a great growth pick right now.
Earnings Growth
Earnings growth is arguably the most important factor, as stocks exhibiting exceptionally surging profit levels tend to attract the attention of most investors. For growth investors, double-digit earnings growth is highly preferable, as it is often perceived as an indication of strong prospects (and stock price gains) for the company under consideration.
While the historical EPS growth rate for iRadimed is 3%, investors should actually focus on the projected growth. The company’s EPS is expected to grow 75% this year, crushing the industry average, which calls for EPS growth of 25.5%.
Impressive Asset Utilization Ratio
Asset utilization ratio — also known as sales-to-total-assets (S/TA) ratio — is often overlooked by investors, but it is an important indicator in growth investing. This metric shows how efficiently a firm is utilizing its assets to generate sales.
Right now, iRadimed has an S/TA ratio of 0.52, which means that the company gets $0.52 in sales for each dollar in assets. Comparing this to the industry average of 0.49, it can be said that the company is more efficient.
While the level of efficiency in generating sales matters a lot, so does the sales growth of a company. And iRadimed looks attractive from a sales growth perspective as well. The company’s sales are expected to grow 31.2% this year versus the industry average of 11.8%.
Promising Earnings Estimate Revisions
Superiority of a stock in terms of the metrics outlined above can be further validated by looking at the trend in earnings estimate revisions. A positive trend is of course favorable here. Empirical research shows that there is a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
The current-year earnings estimates for iRadimed have been revising upward. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has surged 17% over the past month.
Bottom Line
While the overall earnings estimate revisions have made iRadimed a Zacks Rank #2 stock, it has earned itself a Growth Score of B based on a number of factors, including the ones discussed above.
You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
This combination indicates that iRadimed is a potential outperformer and a solid choice for growth investors.
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