5 Stocks With Recent Price Strength to Maximize Your Returns

U.S. stock markets have continued their northward journey in 2025 following an impressive rally over the previous two years. All three major stock indexes — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite — are currently hovering near their all-time highs. 

Expectations for the first interest rate cut in 2025 by the Fed in its September FOMC meeting have skyrocketed, following the release of tepid nonfarm payrolls data for August. The CME FedWatch interest rate derivative tool currently shows a 100% probability of a 25-basis-point rate cut this week.

Consequently, several stocks have shown price strength. We have primarily targeted stocks that have recently been on a bull run. Such stocks have a high chance of carrying the momentum forward.

Five such stocks are — DRDGOLD Ltd. DRD, Daktronics Inc. DAKT, NCS Multistage Holdings Inc. NCSM, Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. BBW and Vishay Precision Group Inc. VPG. 

If a stock is continuously witnessing an uptrend, there must be a solid reason or it would have probably crashed. So, looking at stocks capable of beating the benchmark that they have set for themselves seems rational.

However, recent price strength alone cannot create magic. Therefore, other relevant parameters are needed to create a successful investment strategy.

Here’s how you should create the screen to shortlist the current as well as the potential winners.

Screening Parameters:

Percentage Change in Price (4 Weeks) greater than zero: This criterion shows that the stock has moved higher in the last four weeks. 

Percentage Change Price (12 Weeks) greater than 10: This indicates that the stock has seen momentum over the last three months. This lowers the risk of choosing stocks that may have drawn attention due to the overwhelming performance of the overall market in a very short period. 

Zacks Rank 1: No matter whether market conditions are good or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) have a proven history of outperformance. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Average Broker Rating 1: This indicates that brokers are also highly hopeful about the stock’s future performance. 

Current Price greater than 5: The stocks must all be trading at a minimum of $5.

Current Price/ 52-Week High-Low Range more than 85%: This criterion filters stocks that are trading near their respective 52-week highs. It indicates that these are strong enough in terms of price.

Just these few criteria narrowed down the search from over 7,700 stocks to 20.

Let’s discuss five out of these 20 stocks here:

DRDGOLD is a medium-sized, unhedged gold producer with investments in South Africa and Australasia. DRD sells gold and silver bullion. DRD recently concluded extensive refocusing of its gold interests. 

The stock price of DRDGOLD has soared 49.9% over the past four weeks. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 13.3% for the current year (ending June 2026). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 80% over the past 30 days.

Daktronics has strong leadership positions in and is one of the world's largest suppliers of, electronic scoreboards, computer-programmable displays, and large screen video displays and control systems. 

DAKT excels in the control of large display systems, including those that require the integration of multiple complex displays to show real-time information, graphics, animation and video. DAKT designs, manufactures, markets and services display systems for customers around the world in sport, business and transportation applications. 

The stock price of Daktronics has jumped 39.1% over the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 28.2% for the current year (ending April 2026). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 6.9% over the past seven days.

NCS Multistage Holdings is a global supplier of engineered products and support services for oil and natural gas well completions and construction, and field development strategies. NCSM’s major offerings include fracturing systems and enhanced recovery products, repeat precision products, chemical and radioactive tracer diagnostics services, and well construction products. 

The stock price of NCS Multistage Holdings has climbed 38.4% over the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 6.7% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 62% over the past 60 days.

Build-A-Bear Workshop is the leading and only national company providing a make your own stuffed animal interactive retail-entertainment experience. BBW operates through three segments: Direct-to-Consumer, International Franchising, and Commercial. BBW sales its products through the Build-A-Bear Workshop store as well as through its e-commerce sites.

The stock price of Build-A-Bear Workshop has surged 33.1% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 6.9% for the current year (ending January 2026). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 3.9% over the past 30 days.

Vishay Precision Group is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of resistive foil technology products such as resistive sensors, weighing modules, and control systems for a wide variety of applications. VPG provides vertically integrated products and solutions for multiple growing markets in the areas of stress measurement, industrial weighing, and manufacturing process control. 

VPG’s product portfolio includes Bulk Metal foil resistors and sensors, strain gages and instruments, load cells, modules and PhotoStress products. VPG also provides systems to control process weighing in food, chemical, and pharmaceutical plants, force measurement systems used to control web tension in paper mills, roller force in steel mills, and cable tension in winch controls, on-board weighing systems installed in logging and waste-handling trucks, and special scale systems used for aircraft weighing and portable truck weighing.

The stock price of Vishay Precision Group has rallied 14.4% over the past four weeks. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of -27.4% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 5.8% over the last 60 days.

You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing 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. 

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

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