4 Stock Market Winners Now With Relative Price Strength

After a rocky start to 2025, Wall Street is regaining its footing. Tariff tensions, AI sector fatigue and recession fears weighed heavily early on, but momentum has started shifting. Inflation is cooling, Fed policy remains steady and recent projections show the U.S. economy holding strong. GDP is expected to grow, unemployment is low and even with global tensions, investor sentiment is cautiously optimistic. Markets are beginning to shake off the noise and refocus on fundamentals.

Still, volatility hasn’t vanished — geopolitical shocks, especially in the Middle East, continue to send oil and stock prices swinging. But in this mixed landscape, the one approach of relative price strength stands out. It helps investors focus on stocks that are doing better than others. In a market that’s slowly finding its way up, strong stocks often keep leading, making this strategy both timely and effective.

At this stage, investors would be wise to consider stocks such as Pegasystems Inc. PEGA, MYR Group Inc. MYRG, Dave Inc. DAVE and Ferguson Enterprises Inc. FERG based on their relative price strength.

Relative Price Strength Strategy

Whether a stock has the potential to offer considerable returns is determined primarily by its earnings and valuation ratios. Simultaneously, it is essential to check whether its price performance exceeds its peers or the industry average.

Upon such comparison, if we find that a stock is unable to match up to wider sectoral growth despite having impressive earnings momentum or valuation multiples, it may be better to avoid it.

However, those outperforming their respective industries or benchmarks should be included in your portfolio since they have a higher chance of securing significant returns. Picking a stock that outperforms its peers ensures a winning option on your hands.

Then again, it is imperative that you determine whether or not an investment has relevant upside potential when considering stocks with significant relative price strength. Stocks delivering better than the S&P 500 for 1 to 3 months, at least, and having solid fundamentals, indicate room for growth and are the best ways to go about this strategy.

Finally, it is crucial to find out whether analysts are optimistic about the upcoming earnings of these companies. In order to do this, we have added positive estimate revisions for the current quarter’s (Q1) earnings to our screen. When a stock undergoes an upward revision, it leads to additional price gains.

Screening Parameters

Relative % Price change – 12 weeks greater than 0

Relative % Price change – 4 weeks greater than 0

Relative % Price change – 1 week greater than 0

(We have considered those stocks that have been outperforming the S&P 500 over the last 12 weeks, four weeks and one week.)

% Change (Q1) Est. over 4 Weeks greater than 0: Positive current-quarter estimate revisions over the last four weeks.

Zacks Rank equal to 1: Only Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks — that have returned more than 26% annually over the last 26 years and surpassed the S&P 500 in 23 of the last 26 years — can get through. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Current Price greater than or equal to $5 and Average 20-day Volume greater than or equal to 50,000: A minimum price of $5 is a good standard to screen low-priced stocks, while a high trading volume would imply adequate liquidity.

VGM Score less than or equal to B: Our research shows that stocks with a VGM Score of A or B, when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 (Buy), offer the best upside potential.

Here are the four stocks that made it through the screen:

Pegasystems: The company helps businesses adapt faster with AI-driven decisioning and workflow automation. Pegasystems’ platform powers personalized service and streamlined operations across industries like finance, healthcare, insurance, and telecom. PEGA, with a VGM Score of B, has a current market capitalization of $8.5 billion.

Notably, over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Pegasystems’ 2025 earnings has moved up 19.1%. It beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in each of the last four quarters, the average being 94%. PEGA shares have increased 67.3% in a year.

MYR Group: Based in Thornton, CO, MYR Group delivers specialized electrical construction and maintenance services across the United States and Canada. It operates through two segments — Transmission & Distribution and Commercial & Industrial — serving utilities and non-residential clients with reliable, high-voltage expertise. The company has a market capitalization of $2.6 billion. MYR Group has a VGM Score of B.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2025 earnings per share indicates 260.1% year-over-year growth. MYR Group beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the last four quarters and missed in the other. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of roughly 55.7%, on average. The firm’s shares are up 21% in a year.

Dave: It is a digital banking platform helping underserved users manage money with ease. Its tools include budgeting support, interest-free cash advances, side income opportunities, and a modern checking account—all designed to boost financial health. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings of Dave indicates 66.8% growth. The company has a VGM Score of B.

Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Dave’s 2025 earnings has moved up 33.8%. The company has a market capitalization of $2.8 billion. Dave shares have gone up 461.2% in a year.

Ferguson Enterprises: Based in Newport News, VA, the company is North America’s leading distributor of plumbing, HVAC, and building products. Serving both residential and commercial markets, it supports professionals with expert solutions and a broad product range to simplify complex construction needs. Ferguson Enterprises, with a VGM Score of B, has a current market capitalization of $42.4 billion.

Notably, over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FERG’s fiscal 2025 earnings has moved up 7%. Ferguson Enterprises beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in two of the last four quarters and missed in the other two, the average being 4.8%. FERG shares have gained 10.1% in a year.

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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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