Each week Forcerank runs a variety of games covering different industries. What we have found, is that the top three ranked companies in their respective games deliver the biggest positive price movement for that week. This week the winners feature popular names like Lululemon and Alphabet.
Lululemon athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) | Apparel: The athleisure brand jumped Nike (NYSE:NKE) this week after months of being one of the worst-ranked stocks. Its move higher is likely a byproduct of Nike and Under Armour's (NYSE:UA) horrific weeks. Under Armour cut guidance afters its third-quarter results last week and Nike was recently downgraded by Bank of America (NYSE:BAC). Beyond its competitor’s pitfalls, Lululemon doesn’t appear in a position of strength. Many experts believe that the activewear trend is fading away as consumers are less willing to pay a premium for workout clothes. That said, lululemon made a significant climb in average user rank to 3.53 from 4.17 the week prior. Steadily improving technicals support the claim that a breakout is on the horizon. Three gaps have yet to be filled from the beginning of September with the higher at $75, almost $20 above its current trading price.
Domino’s Pizza Group (NYSE:DPZ) | Restaurants: Not even The Noid can slow down Domino’s current hot streak. The pizza chain continues to ride high after posting spectacular results for the third quarter. Domestic same-store sales for the quarter rose 13%, marking the 22nd consecutive quarter of positive growth in the U.S. The company continues to execute efficiently, effectively leveraging new technologies and capturing any lost sales from Pizza Hut’s ongoing struggles. As the pizza chain makes further efforts to expand growth, the stock will likely follow in the same direction. Forcerank user’s positioned Domino’s in the second spot of the restaurant game this week, just behind Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX). But at its current pace, it won’t be long before it warrants the top spot.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) | Social Media: Google is trending higher after toppling analyst’s expectations in its third-quarter results. The tech giant had somewhat stalled prior to these results while losses from its moonshot investments piled up. Those concerns appear to have been put to rest after this report, which featured a surge in their core mobile search and video businesses. Paid clicks increased 42% from a year earlier, roughly 10% higher than the industry average of 32%. New devices, Youtube and other strategic initiatives are expected to help diversify Google’s revenues and enrich its capabilities. So far, Google Home and Pixel have been well received and should shift the heat back to Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which offer comparable products. Beyond strong fundamentals, Google’s technical chart doesn’t appear to support any near-term trend higher. Alphabet was the second-ranked stock in this week’s social-media game, just behind Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), and the top ranked in the revamped Hardware contest.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) | Large Enterprise Software: Microsoft, like Dominos (OTC:DPUKY), is seeing a boost in its rankings following its earnings report last week. The company recorded a 5 cent beat on the bottom line and nearly $600 million on the top. A majority of these gains came from its cloud computing and productivity segments. MS Azure is now firmly the second-best cloud computing platform, behind Amazon Web Services. Personal Computing only declined 2%, most of which came from waning phone and gaming demand. A shocking 38% increase in tablet sales during the first quarter have Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) investors questioning what the company can do to jumpstart iPad sales. The report also caused a huge breakout in its technicals, which could be the start of a lengthy run. A new peak in the on-balance volume, bullish crossover in the MACD and 20-day moving average all indicate positive upside. More recently, the company released two new products, Microsoft Teams and the large studio tables, both of which are expected to compete with established players in their respective spaces, Slack and Apple. If Microsoft can establish any sort of foothold, that would be enough to justify shares moving higher.
Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) | Ecommerce: This was perhaps the most surprising move in this week’s rankings. The online-travel agency jumped top-ranked Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) to take the #1 spot in the ecommerce contest. Priceline is still a week away from reporting its third-quarter results. The recent movement can be explained by strong top-line growth from the airlines earlier this earnings season and Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) last week. Forcerank users are optimistic that Priceline can breakout in the near future. Average ranks improved to 3.93 from 5.72 the prior week, passing Amazon, Netflix, Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and Expedia in the process.