Stock Power Ratings: The Strong and the Weak
The Los Angeles Times Power Ratings rank stocks based on growth-oriented criteria: price momentum, earnings forecasts and analysts’ recommendations. Using a formula designed by The Times, Zacks Investment Research screens its 6,600-stock universe for those with strength--or weakness--in three equally weighted categories: percentage change in share price over the last 12 weeks; percentage change, also over the last 12 weeks, in analysts’ consensus earnings-per-share estimate for the company’s current fiscal year; and analysts’ consensus rating (1.0 equals “strong buy” and 5.0 equals “strong sell”). Zacks ranks the stocks from 1 to 6,600 in each of the three categories, then averages those rankings to derive an overall power rating. The Top 15 and Bottom 10 stocks are listed. Although no one should make investment decisions based solely on a stock screen--and The Times is not recommending buying or selling any of the companies listed--growth-oriented investors may be interested in seeing which companies have been showing strength or weakness in recent months. Along with the criteria used in the screen, the accompanying chart also lists Friday’s closing prices.
The Top 15
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% chg. Avg. Ticker Friday % chg. in avg. ’99 analyst Company symbol price in price** EPS* est.** rating 1 First Sierra Finan BTOB $24.25 166% 117% 1.50 2 Zomax ZOMX 38.56 87 45 1.25 3 Forest Oil FST 13.00 68 2,867 1.38 4 Harmonic Light HLIT 48.88 69 68 1.40 5 SCP Pool POOL 23.88 69 17 1.00 6 Conexant CNXT 55.50 105 349 1.73 7 Methode Elect-A METHA 22.50 98 9 1.00 8 Knight/Trimark NITE 51.63 56 66 1.29 9 Qlogic QLGC 125.25 90 16 1.36 10 Asyst Tech ASYT 26.94 77 33 1.50 11 Aracruz Cel-ADR ARA 21.50 51 24 1.00 12 Qualcomm QCOM 126.75 85 47 1.64 13 Power Integ. POWI 61.25 94 18 1.50 14 Forward Air FWRD 27.00 97 28 1.60 15 Credence Sys CMOS 34.44 63 74 1.56
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The Bottom 10
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% chg. Avg. Ticker Friday % chg. in avg. ’99 analyst Company symbol price in price** EPS* est.** rating 1 Onsale ONSL $18.19 -44% -180% 2.98 2 Network Assoc NETA 15.00 -51 -100 2.48 3 Vlasic Foods VL 7.13 -45 -44 2.75 4 Axent Tech AXNT 11.31 -43 -77 2.37 5 KN Energy KNE 12.81 -36 -50 2.82 6 P-Com PCMS 5.50 -24 -145 2.39 7 Amazon.com AMZN -110.19 -36 -92 1.71 8 Aspen Tech AZPN 11.41 -14 -289 3.00 9 Concur Tech CNQR 26.00 -47 -36 1.80 10 CheckFree Hldgs CKFR 26.50 -39 -41 1.55
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* Earnings per share
** For last 12 weeks
Notes: Companies with share prices below $5 and those covered by fewer than three analysts are excluded.
Source: Richard Peal/Zacks Investment Research; for more information on Zacks Investment Research, visit https://www.zacks.com.
