Add These 4 Top-Performing Liquid Stocks to Boost Portfolio Returns

Liquidity indicates a company’s capability to meet debt obligations by converting its assets into liquid cash and equivalents. A company with adequate liquidity always has the potential to deliver higher returns, as stable financial resources can drive business growth.

Investors may want to consider adding four top-ranked stocks, such as The New York Times Company NYT, Dillard's, Inc. DDS, Newmont Corporation NEM and Frontdoor, Inc. FTDR to their portfolio to boost returns.

However, one should be careful about investing in a stock with a high liquidity level. High liquidity may also indicate that the company is unable to utilize its assets effectively. Besides sufficient cash in hand, an investor might also consider a company’s capital deployment abilities before investing in the stock. A healthy company with favorable liquidity may prove to be a profitable pick.

Hence, one may consider a company’s efficiency level in addition to its liquidity while identifying prospective winners. A balanced assessment of both liquidity and efficiency can help identify truly promising investment opportunities.

Measures to Identify Liquid Stocks

Current Ratio: It measures current assets relative to current liabilities. The ratio gauges a company’s potential to meet short- and long-term debt obligations. A current ratio — the working capital ratio — below 1 indicates that the company has more liabilities than assets. A high current ratio does not always suggest that the company is in good financial shape. It may also indicate that the firm failed to utilize its assets significantly. Hence, a range of 1-3 is considered ideal.

Quick Ratio: Unlike the current ratio, the quick ratio — the “acid-test ratio” or “quick assets ratio” — indicates a company’s ability to pay short-term obligations. It considers inventory, excluding current assets, relative to current liabilities. A quick ratio of more than 1 is desirable, like the current ratio.

Cash Ratio: This is the most conservative ratio among the three, considering cash and cash equivalents and invested funds relative to current liabilities. It measures a company’s ability to meet existing debt obligations using the most liquid assets. Though a cash ratio of more than 1 may suggest sound financials, a higher number may indicate inefficiency in cash utilization.

A ratio greater than 1 is always desirable, but may not always represent a company’s financial condition.

Screening Parameters

To pick the best of the lot, we have added asset utilization — a widely used measure of a company’s efficiency — as one of the screening criteria. Asset utilization is the ratio of total sales in the past 12 months to the last four-quarter average of total assets. Though this ratio varies across industries, companies with a ratio higher than that of their industry can be considered efficient.

We added our proprietary Growth Score to the screen to ensure these liquid and efficient stocks have solid growth potential.

Current Ratio, Quick Ratio, and Cash Ratio between 1 and 3: While liquidity ratios greater than 1 are desirable, significantly high ratios may indicate inefficiency.

Asset utilization is more significant than the industry average: A Higher asset utilization than the industry average indicates a company’s efficiency.

Zacks Rank equal to #1: Only Strong Buy-rated stocks can get through. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Growth Score less than or equal to B: Back-tested results show that stocks with a Growth Score of A or B handily beat other stocks when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 (Buy).

These criteria have narrowed the universe of more than 7,700 stocks to only 10.

Here are four of the 10 stocks that qualified the screen:

The New York Times Company is a diversified media company comprising newspapers, Internet businesses and other investments. It is capitalizing on its multi-platform strategy to drive digital growth, broaden audience engagement and diversify revenue streams. Expansion into lifestyle categories such as Cooking, Games and Sports, supported by bundled subscription offerings, is deepening customer relationships and boosting retention.

NYT recently reported second-quarter 2025 results. The company's adjusted earnings per share were 58 cents, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 50 cents and increased from the year-ago adjusted earnings of 45 cents. Total revenues of $685.9 million came ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $669 million and increased 9.7% year over year.

NYT added approximately 230,000 net digital-only subscribers in the quarter under review compared with the end of the preceding quarter, propelled by multiple products across its portfolio. NYT’s digital-only average revenue per user (ARPU) increased to an impressive $9.64 in the second quarter from $9.34 in the year-ago period. This rise in ARPU can be attributed to subscribers transitioning from promotional pricing to higher rate plans and price hikes for certain tenured subscribers.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NYT’s 2025 bottom line is pinned at $2.28 per share, unchanged in the past seven days. The company has a Growth Score of B and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 12.1%, on average.

Dillard's is a large departmental store chain featuring fashion apparel and home furnishings. As of Aug 14, 2025, DDS operated 272 Dillard’s stores, including 28 clearance stores, across 30 states.

DDS recently reported second-quarter 2025 results wherein net sales came in at $1.5 billion, up 1.6% year over year. Both total retail sales (which excludes CDI) and comparable store sales inched up 1%.  The strong performing categories were juniors’ and children’s apparel and ladies’ accessories and lingerie while home and furniture was the weakest performing category.

Dillard’s reported adjusted earnings per share of $4.66, which topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 23% and grew 1.5% year over year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DDS’ 2025 earnings is pegged at $30.47 per share, unchanged in the past seven days. The company has a Growth Score of A and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 24.04%, on average.

Newmont Corporation is one of the world's largest producers of gold with several active mines in Nevada, Peru, Australia and Ghana. The company is the only gold producer listed on the S&P 500 Index. It also produces copper, silver, zinc and lead.

Newmont continues to invest in growth projects and remains focused on driving shareholder value.  The company is pursuing several projects, including Tanami Expansion 2 in Australia, the Ahafo North expansion in Ghana and Cadia Panel Caves in Australia. Newmont also remains committed to divesting non-core businesses as it shifts its strategic focus to Tier 1 assets.  In April 2025, Newmont completed the sale of its Akyem operation in Ghana and its Porcupine operation in Canada, successfully executing its divestiture program announced in February 2024. The acquisition of Newcrest is expected to generate significant synergies.

Newmont's revenues for the second quarter were roughly $5.32 billion, up 20.8% from the prior-year quarter. The figure topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.58 billion. The increase in the top line was primarily due to higher year-over-year realized gold prices. Barring one-time items, adjusted earnings were $1.43 per share, up from 72 cents reported in the prior-year quarter. It topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.04 per share.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings is pegged at $5.27 per share, unchanged in the past seven days. NEM has a Growth Score of B and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 32.82%, on average.

Frontdoor is the parent company of home service plan brands like American Home Shield, HSA, Landmark and OneGuard. Based in Memphis, TN, this company provides home warranties in the United States.

FTDR is gaining from its focus on new and innovative ways to boost demand for services, and the relaunch of the American Home Shield brand is a significant component of this strategy. The company’s continued emphasis on growing its member base, particularly in the DTC channel, has been driving growth.

In the last reported quarter, revenues came in at $617 million, up 14% year over year. The uptick was driven by a 2% increase in price and 12% higher volume. The higher volume was driven by the 2-10 acquisition. Real estate revenues increased 21%. Further, the number of first-year Direct-to-Consumer home warranties was 2.09 million, up 7% year over year. Gross margin expanded 130 basis points to 58%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings is pegged at $3.90 per share, up 9 cents in the past seven days. FTDR has a Growth Score of A and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 66.4%, on average.

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