Wall Street’s powerful rally continues to defy seasonal expectations, with the S&P 500 extending its advance to record highs. The market’s strength has been fueled by the ongoing AI revolution, as generative and agentic technologies continue to reshape industries and support strong demand for technology-focused companies. As a result, investors have largely stayed committed to equities despite occasional bouts of uncertainty.
Recent gains have been supported by a combination of easing geopolitical tensions, softer oil prices, and encouraging signals from policymakers. Progress in discussions between the United States and Iran has helped calm concerns about energy supplies and inflation, while technology stocks have continued to provide leadership. Broad participation across large-, mid-, and small-cap stocks also points to healthy market momentum.
Although risks remain, the overall backdrop remains constructive. In this environment, relative price strength remains a valuable strategy, helping investors identify stocks that continue to outperform and attract buying interest as the broader market trend stays positive.
At this stage, investors would be wise to consider companies such as Pagaya Technologies PGY, Movado Group MOV, YPF S.A. YPF and Block, Inc. XYZ.
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 the best way 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:
Pagaya Technologies: Founded in 2016, Pagaya Technologies applies proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) to improve credit decisioning and capital allocation across consumer finance. Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2026 earnings has moved up 12.2%. PGY has a VGM Score of A.
Pagaya 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 29%, on average. PGY shares have dropped 9.6% in a year.
Movado Group: It designs and markets watches and jewelry through owned and licensed brands, supported by global reach, company stores, strong cash reserves and a focus on profitable growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 earnings of Movado Group indicates 24.6% growth. MOV has a VGM Score of B.
The firm has a market capitalization of around $850 million. Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Movado Group’s fiscal 2027 earnings has gone up 9.2%. MOV’s shares have surged 135.1% in a year.
YPF: YPF is Argentina’s leading integrated energy company, active across production, refining, marketing, and renewables. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings of YPF indicates 439.5% growth. YPF has a VGM Score of A.
Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for YPF’s 2026 earnings has moved up 59.3%. The company has a market capitalization of $21 billion. YPF shares have gone up 53.1% in a year.
Block: Block offers financial and marketing services through a commerce ecosystem that helps sellers start, run and grow their businesses. The company’s expected EPS growth rate for three to five years is currently 31.8%, which compares favorably with the industry's growth rate of 22.1%. XYZ has a VGM Score of B.
Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Block’s 2026 earnings has moved up 6.3%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings of the company indicates 62.9% growth. XYZ shares have gained 22.6% in a year.
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YPF Sociedad Anonima (YPF): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).