Zacks.com featured highlights Apple, Microsoft and Mastercard

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 7, 2025 – The stocks in this week’s article are Apple Inc. AAPL, Microsoft Corp. MSFT and Mastercard Inc. MA.

Apple & 2 More Stocks to Watch for Stellar Earnings Growth

Analyze a company’s revenues over a specific period, subtract the production costs, and you get the earnings. Whether it’s a startup or a well-established company, earnings growth remains the primary focus for any organization. This is because if the company doesn’t make a profit, it cannot survive.

By the way, earnings are also considered the most important variable influencing the share price. But expectations of earnings play a striking role.

Nonetheless, stocks such as Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Mastercard Inc. are currently exhibiting superb earnings growth.

Earnings Estimates & Share Price Movements

Frequently, we have seen a decline in the stock price 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 also help analysts assess the cash flow to determine the fair value of a firm.

Thus, investors should be on the lookout for stocks ready to make a big move. Hence, investors need to buy stocks with historical earnings growth and are seeing a rise in quarterly and annual earnings estimates.

The above criteria narrowed the universe of around 7,839 stocks to only 20. Here are the top three stocks:

Apple

Apple creates, produces, and sells smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearable devices, and accessories all around the globe. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 8.2%. AAPL currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Microsoft

Microsoft creates and provides software, services, devices and solutions on a global scale. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 12.3%. MSFT currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Mastercard

Mastercard offers services and products related to transaction processing and payments both in the United States and around the world. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 11.4%. MA currently has a Zacks Rank #3.

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.

Free: Instant Access to Zacks' Market-Crushing Strategies

Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year.

Today you can tap into those powerful strategies – and the high-potential stocks they uncover – free. No strings attached.

Get all the details here >>

For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit Zacks.com at: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/2674488/apple-2-more-stocks-to-watch-for-stellar-earnings-growth

Follow us on Twitter:  https://www.twitter.com/zacksresearch

Join us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ZacksInvestmentResearch

Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates.

Contact: Jim Giaquinto

Company: Zacks.com

Phone: 312-265-9268

Email: [email protected]

Visit: https://www.zacks.com/

Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research