Invest in 4 Winning Stocks With Proven Relative Price Power

Wall Street wrapped up June with impressive gains, as the S&P 500 rose 5%. This positive mood was fueled by good news on several fronts: growing hope for new trade deals, a ceasefire in the Middle East, and the expectation that interest rates might be cut later in 2025. Adding to the rally, encouraging economic reports, such as strong manufacturing data, increasing factory orders, and a better-than-expected jobs report for June, helped calm fears of an upcoming recession.

As July gets going, this positive momentum seems to be holding steady. The job market remains strong, inflation continues to cool down and companies are about to start announcing their latest earnings. While disagreements over trade could cause some short-term ups and downs in the market, potential new trade agreements might just give things another boost. In such an environment, identifying stocks that are already showing strong price growth can be a smart move. It helps investors spot the leaders in a market that's proving to be tough and trending upward.

At this stage, investors would be wise to consider stocks such as Dell Technologies Inc. DELL, Jabil Inc. JBL, Phibro Animal Health Corporation PAHC and Hudbay Minerals Inc. HBM based on their relative price strength.

Relative Price Strength Strategy

Investors generally gauge a stock’s potential returns by examining earnings growth and valuation multiples. At the same time, it’s essential to measure the performance of such a stock relative to its industry, peers, or an appropriate benchmark.

If you see that a stock is underperforming on fundamental factors, it would be prudent to move on and find a better alternative. However, those outperforming their respective sectors in terms of price should be selected because they stand a better chance of providing considerable returns.

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 four of the seven stocks that made it through the screen:

Dell Technologies: Based in Round Rock, TX, Dell Technologies is a leading provider of servers, storage and PCs. The company has a market capitalization of $84.7 billion. Dell Technologies has a VGM Score of A.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s fiscal 2026 earnings per share indicates 16% year-over-year growth. Del Technologies 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 2.3%, on average. The firm’s shares are down 14.7% in a year.

Jabil: Based in Saint Petersburg, FL, it is one of the largest global suppliers of electronic manufacturing services. Jabil’s expected EPS growth rate for three to five years is currently 16.6%, which compares favorably with the industry's growth rate of 14.8%. The company has a VGM Score of B.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Jabil’s fiscal 2025 earnings per share indicates 10.1% year-over-year growth. Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its fiscal 2025 earnings has moved up 4.7%. JBL shares have surged 102% in a year.

Phibro Animal Health: It is a leading global diversified animal health and mineral nutrition company. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 earnings of Phibro Animal Health indicates 71.4% growth. The company has a VGM Score of A.

Phibro Animal Health beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in each of the last four quarters, the average being 30.6%. The company has a market capitalization of $1.2 billion. Phibro Animal Health shares have gone up 75.7% in a year.

Hudbay Minerals: it produces primarily copper, from its operations in Canada, Peru, and the U.S. Hudbay Minerals’ expected EPS growth rate for three to five years is currently 51.7%, which compares favorably with the industry's growth rate of 35.3%. The company has a VGM Score of A.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Hudbay Minerals’ 2025 earnings per share indicates 43.8% year-over-year growth. Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2025 earnings has moved up 32.7%. HBM shares have gained 17.6% in a year.

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.

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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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