3 Stocks With Upgraded Broker Ratings Worth Investing Now

A number of fundamental and technical aspects are involved in identifying stocks with strong growth potential. It’s not an easy task for individual investors to select stocks on their own and this is where expert advice comes in handy.

By following broker rating upgrades, an investor can easily find attractive stocks. Brokers have greater insight into what’s happening in a particular company, as they directly communicate with top management. Further, they exhaustively go through the company’s publicly available documents and attend conference calls.

Further, brokers have a deeper understanding of the overall industry. They also place the company fundamentals against the present economic backdrop to figure out how the stock will fare as an investment.

So, when a broker upgrades a stock, you can certainly rely on their judgment. Nonetheless, depending solely on broker upgrade is not a great idea to build your investment portfolio. You should also take into account other factors to ensure steady returns.

Choosing the Winning Strategy

We have a screening strategy that will help in your search for potential winners:

Broker Rating Upgrades (4 weeks) of 1% or more: The screen selects stocks that have witnessed broker rating upgrades of 1% or more over the last four weeks.

Current Price greater than 5: The stocks must be trading above $5.

Average 20-day Volume greater than 100,000: A large trading volume guarantees that the stock is easily tradable.

Zacks Rank equal to #1 or #2: No matter whether market conditions are good or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or #2 (Buy) have a proven record of success. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

VGM Score equal to A or B: Our research shows that stocks with a VGM Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 offer the best upside potential.

Here are the three stocks that made it through the screen:

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) , headquartered in Bentonville, AR, operates retail stores in various formats. Its current year earnings are expected to increase 2.5%. The stock has witnessed 4.2% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.

Headquartered in South Korea, SK Telecom Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SKM) provides wireless telecommunications services. The company’s earnings are expected to rise 34% in the current year. The stock has witnessed 50% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.

St. Louis, MO-based Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) is a financial services and bank holding company. The company’s earnings are expected to increase 44.4% this year. The stock has witnessed 50% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.

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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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Stifel Financial Corporation (SF): Free Stock Analysis Report

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT): Free Stock Analysis Report

SK Telecom Co., Ltd. (SKM): Free Stock Analysis Report

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