Most of us have heard the dictum “the trend is your friend.” And this is undeniably the key to success when it comes to short-term investing or trading. But it isn’t easy to ensure the sustainability of a trend and profit from it.
Often, the direction of a stock’s price movement reverses quickly after taking a position in it, making investors incur a short-term capital loss. So, it’s important to ensure that there are enough factors — such as sound fundamentals, positive earnings estimate revisions, etc. — that could keep the momentum in the stock going.
Our “Recent Price Strength” screen, which is created on a unique short-term trading strategy, could be pretty useful in this regard. This predefined screen makes it really easy to shortlist the stocks that have enough fundamental strength to maintain their recent uptrend. Also, the screen passes only the stocks that are trading in the upper portion of their 52-week high-low range, which is usually an indicator of bullishness.
Vaalco Energy
(EGY) is one of the several suitable candidates that passed through the screen. Here are the key reasons why it could be a profitable bet for “trend” investors.
A solid price increase over a period of 12 weeks reflects investors’ continued willingness to pay more for the potential upside in a stock. EGY is quite a good fit in this regard, gaining 90.3% over this period.
However, it’s not enough to look at the price change for around three months, as it doesn’t reflect any trend reversal that might have happened in a shorter time frame. It’s important for a potential winner to maintain the price trend. A price increase of 11.8% over the past four weeks ensures that the trend is still in place for the stock of this oil and natural gas explorer.
Moreover, EGY is currently trading at 92.5% of its 52-week High-Low Range, hinting that it can be on the verge of a breakout.
Looking at the fundamentals, the stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), which means it is in the top 20% of more than the 4,000 stocks that we rank based on trends in earnings estimate revisions and EPS surprises — the key factors that impact a stock’s near-term price movements.
The Zacks Rank stock-rating system, which uses four factors related to earnings estimates to classify stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record, with Zacks Rank #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
Another factor that confirms the company’s fundamental strength is its Average Broker Recommendation of #1 (Strong Buy). This indicates that the brokerage community is highly optimistic about the stock’s near-term price performance.
So, the price trend in EGY may not reverse anytime soon.
In addition to EGY, there are several other stocks that currently pass through our “Recent Price Strength” screen. You may consider investing in them and start looking for the newest stocks that fit these criteria.
This is not the only screen that could help you find your next winning stock pick. Based on your personal investing style, you may choose from over 45
Zacks Premium Screens
that are strategically created to beat the market.
However, keep in mind that the key to a successful stock-picking strategy is to ensure that it produced profitable results in the past. You could easily do that with the help of the Zacks Research Wizard. In addition to allowing you to backtest the effectiveness of your strategy, the program comes loaded with some of our most successful stock-picking strategies.
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