4 High Earnings Yield Stocks To Strengthen Your Portfolio

If you are hesitant about whether to put your money in bonds or stocks, a key metric that can show you the right direction is earnings yield. It is the reciprocal of the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. This ratio is very useful in figuring out undervalued stocks and comes in handy for comparing stocks with the market or fixed income securities.

Earnings yield can be computed as (annual earnings per share/market price) x 100. While comparing similar stocks, the one carrying high earnings yield should provide higher returns.

This ratio is useful for comparing the performance of the market with the 10-year Treasury yield. When the yield of the market index exceeds the 10-year Treasury yield, stocks are said to be undervalued in comparison to bonds. This means that investing in the stock market is a better option for a value investor.

However, while T-bills are free of risks, investing in stocks always carries some inherent risks. Hence, it will be wise to add a risk premium to the Treasury yield while comparing with the earnings yield of a stock or the broader market.

The Winning Strategy

We have set Earnings Yield greater than 10% as our primary screening criterion but it alone cannot be used for picking stocks that have the potential to generate solid returns. So, we have added the following parameters to the screen:

Estimated EPS growth for the next 12 months greater than or equal to the S&P 500: This metric compares the 12-month forward EPS estimate with the 12-month actual EPS.

Average Daily Volume (20 Day) greater than or equal to 100,000: High trading volume implies that a stock has adequate liquidity.

Current Price greater than or equal to $5.

Buy-Rated Stocks: Stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) have been known to outperform peers in any type of market environment. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Here are four of the 33 stocks that made it through the screen:

Atlanta, GA-based Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) provides air transportation for passengers and cargo in the United States and internationally. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and an expected EPS growth rate of 13.2% for the next 3-5 years.

Seattle, WA-based Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) , through its subsidiaries, offers passengers and cargo air transportation services. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and an expected EPS growth rate of 1.6% for the next 3-5 years.

Fort Worth, TX-based American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ:AAL) operates as a network air carrier. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and an expected EPS growth rate of 1.3% for the next 3-5 years.

Headquartered in Fulton, MD, Colfax Corporation (NYSE:CFX) is one of the leading manufacturing and engineering companies, specializing in products and services related to air and gas handling, and fabrication technology. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and an expected EPS growth rate of 14.5% for the next 3-5 years.

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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.