After two back-to-back winning runs, the broader equity markets plunged sharply on Friday as a strong jobs report reignited fears of a probable interest rate hike in the impending Federal Reserve meeting later this month. The nonfarm payrolls report for August revealed that the U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs last month, outpacing the broad-based expectations of 53,000 job additions. In addition to a reversal of the summer slowdown in hiring, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%, portraying stable labor market conditions. This apparently pulled down equity markets, while bond yields surged.
Surging oil prices further strained the markets and increased concerns that elevated energy prices will drive inflation higher, leading to a likely rate hike. With a lasting peace agreement in the Middle East fading to oblivion, market uncertainty remained elevated. As investors employ a wait-and-see approach in a classic example of “backing and filling” in the market, they can benefit from “cash cow” stocks that garner higher returns. However, identifying cash-rich stocks alone does not make for a solid investment proposition unless it is backed by attractive efficiency ratios, such as return on equity (ROE). A high ROE ensures that the company is reinvesting cash at a high rate of return. The Allstate Corporation ALL, Arista Networks, Inc. ANET, Ross Stores, Inc. ROST, Gartner, Inc. IT and Micron Technology, Inc. MU are some of the stocks with high ROE to profit from.
Why ROE?
ROE = Net Income/Shareholders’ Equity
ROE helps investors distinguish profit-generating companies from profit burners and is useful in determining the financial health of a company. In other words, this financial metric enables investors to identify companies that diligently deploy cash for higher returns.
Moreover, ROE is often used to compare the profitability of a company with other firms in the industry; the higher, the better. It measures how well a company is multiplying its profits without investing new equity capital and portrays management’s efficiency in rewarding shareholders with attractive risk-adjusted returns.
Parameters Used for Screening
In order to shortlist stocks that are cash-rich with high ROE, we have added Cash Flow greater than $1 billion and ROE greater than X-Industry as our primary screening parameters. In addition, we have taken a few other criteria into consideration to arrive at a winning strategy.
Price/Cash Flow less than X-Industry: This metric measures how much investors pay for $1 of free cash flow. A lower ratio indicates that investors need to pay less for a better cash flow-generating stock.
Return on Assets (ROA) greater than X-Industry: This metric determines how much profit a company earns for every dollar of assets, which includes cash, accounts receivable, property, equipment, inventory and furniture. The higher the ROA, the better it is for the company.
5-Year EPS Historical Growth greater than X-Industry: This criterion indicates that continued earnings momentum has translated into solid cash strength.
Zacks Rank less than or equal to 2: Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) stocks are known to outperform irrespective of the market environment.
Here are five of the 12 stocks that qualified the screening:
Allstate: Headquartered in Northbrook, IL, Allstate is the third-largest property-casualty (P&C) insurer and the largest publicly held personal lines carrier in the United States. The company also provides a range of life insurance and investment products to its diverse customer base. It provides insurance products to approximately 16 million households through more than 12,000 exclusive agencies and financial specialists in the United States and Canada.
The company has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 12.5% and delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 45.3%, on average. It has a VGM Score of A. Allstate sports a Zacks Rank #1 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Arista: Santa Clara, CA-based Arista is engaged in providing cloud networking solutions for data centers and cloud computing environments. The company holds a leadership position in 100-gigabit Ethernet switching for the high-speed datacenter segment. It is increasingly gaining market traction in 200- and 400-gig high-performance switching products and remains well-positioned for healthy growth in the data-driven cloud networking business with proactive platforms and predictive operations.
The company has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 22.7%. It delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 8.9%, on average. Arista sports a Zacks Rank #1.
Ross: Based in Dublin, CA, Ross is an off-price retailer of apparel and home accessories, offering in-season, branded and designer apparel, footwear, accessories and other home-related merchandise. Operating primarily in the United States, it targets middle-income households, keeping prices generally 20% to 60% below the regular prices of most department and specialty stores.
The company has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 14.6% and delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 11.2%, on average. Ross carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present.
Gartner: Headquartered in Stamford, CT, Gartner is reportedly the world's leading information technology research and advisory firm. The company offers rich domain expertise and technology-related insight necessary for an informed decision-making process.
Gartner has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 20.1% and delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 13.5%, on average. Gartner sports a Zacks Rank #1.
Micron: Headquartered in Idaho, Micron is one of the leading worldwide providers of semiconductor memory solutions. Through global brands, namely Micron, Crucial and Ballistix, it manufactures and markets high-performance memory and storage technologies, including Dynamic Random Access Memory, NAND flash memory, NOR Flash and other technologies. Its solutions are used in leading-edge computing, consumer, networking, mobile, automotive, industrial and data center products.
The company delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 21.1%, on average. Micron carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present.
Why Haven't You Looked at Zacks' Top Stocks?
Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year.
Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation.
See Stocks Free >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Micron Technology, Inc. (MU): Free Stock Analysis Report
The Allstate Corporation (ALL): Free Stock Analysis Report
Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST): Free Stock Analysis Report
Gartner, Inc. (IT): Free Stock Analysis Report
Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).