The year 2025 has seen extreme volatility grip the broader equity markets. Tariff-related woes, inflation, softening job growth and geopolitical tensions have mainly resulted in this uncertain scenario.
However, this does not mean that investors should shy away from investing in stocks. However, designing an appropriate portfolio for healthy returns is not an easy task for individual investors. So, what is the way out? One way to do so would be to keep broker-favorite stocks like Zumiez ZUMZ, The Beachbody Company BODI, CVR Energy CVI, Civitas Resources CIVI and Adient ADNT on one’s watchlist.
As brokers indulge in extensive research on stocks under their coverage, they have access to detailed information on a company. To this end, they attend company conference calls/presentations and scrutinize every piece of document available in the public domain before instructing investors. Given this extensive know-how, brokers are deemed to be experts in the field of investing. They are believed to be equipped with thorough knowledge and a clear insight into the complexities associated with the investment world. Paying heed to such well-researched information is, therefore, desirable for investors to avoid the unfortunate scenario of losing their hard-earned money invested in stock markets.
We have designed a screen to shortlist stocks based on improving broker recommendations and upward revisions in earnings estimates over the past four weeks. Also, since the price/sales ratio is a strong complementary valuation metric in the presence of broker information, it has been included. The price/sales ratio takes care of the company’s top line, making the strategy a well-rounded one.
# (Up- Down Rating)/ Total (4 weeks) =Top #75 (This gives the list of top 75 companies that have witnessed net upgrades over the last 4 weeks).
% change in Q (1) est. (4 weeks) = Top #10 (This gives the top 10 stocks that have witnessed earnings estimate revisions over the past 4 weeks for the upcoming quarter).
Price-to-Sales = Bot%10 (The lower the ratio, the better. Companies meeting this criterion are in the bottom 10% of our universe of over 7,700 stocks concerning this ratio).
Current Price greater than 5 (as a stock trading below $5 will not likely create significant interest for most of the investors).
Average Daily Volume greater than 100,000 shares over the last 20 trading days (Volume has to be significant to ensure that these are easily traded).
Market value ($ mil) = Top #3000 (This gives us stocks that are the top 3000 in terms of market capitalization).
