4 Stocks With Recent Price Strength to Enhance Your Portfolio

U.S. stock markets have continued their northward journey in 2025 following an impressive rally over the past two years. A weak labor market has raised expectations that the Fed will continue to reduce the benchmark lending rate during the rest of 2025. 

Moreover, Supreme Court judges looked unconvinced about sweeping tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. Market participants hoped that some of these tariffs might be recalled if the apex court delivers an adverse verdict. However, the recent shutdown of the U.S. government and consequent delay of the release of several key economic data may drag down investors’ enthusiasm. 

Consequently, a few 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.

Four such stocks are — Castle Biosciences Inc. CSTL, Perimeter Solutions Inc. PRM, South Atlantic Bancshares Inc. SABK and Astronics Corp. ATRO.

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 four.

Let’s discuss those four stocks here:

Castle Biosciences is a commercial-stage dermatological cancer company. CSTL is focused on providing physicians and patients, with clinically actionable genomic information.

The stock price of CSTL has soared 43.2% over the past four weeks. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of -137.1% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved more than 100% over the last seven days.

Perimeter Solutions is a manufacturer of firefighting products and lubricant additives. PRM’s Fire Safety business includes formulation and manufacturing of fire management products along with services and pre-treatment solutions for managing wildland, military, industrial and municipal fires. PRM’s Oil Additives business produces phosphorous pentasulfide utilized in the preparation of zinc dialkyldithiophosphate-based lubricant additives.

The stock price of PRM has climbed 17.3% over the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 9.9% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 10.9% over the last 30 days.

South Atlantic Bancshares operates as the bank holding company for South Atlantic Bank, providing banking products and services to individuals and businesses primarily in Horry, Georgetown, and Charleston counties, South Carolina. 

SABK offers checking, money market and savings accounts, CDs, individual retirement accounts, health savings accounts and residential first mortgages, secured loans, home equity lines of credit, auto and recreational vehicle loans, ready reserve overdraft lines of credit, revolving lines of credit as well as term loans for financing equipment. SABK also provides treasury, remote deposit capture, and merchant card services, telephone and online banking, ATM services; debit and credit cards. 

The stock price of South Atlantic Bancshares has advanced 15.2% over the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 55.7% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 6.3% over the last 30 days.

Astronics is a manufacturer of specialized lighting and electronics for the cockpit, cabin and exteriors of military, commercial transport and private business jet aircraft. As a major lighting and electronics supplier to the aircraft industry, ATRO’s strategy is to expand from a components and subsystems supplier to an aircraft lighting systems integrator, increasing the value and content it provides to various aircraft platforms. Luminescent Systems Inc. is ATRO’s primary operating subsidiary which produces its aerospace and defense products.

The stock price of Astronics has gained 2.2% over the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 63.3% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 7.9% over the last seven days.

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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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