Here's Why You Should Add HEICO (HEI) In Your Portfolio Now

HEICO Corporation’s (NYSE:HEI) disciplined acquisition strategy and solid financial performance are significant catalysts to its overall growth. Also, higher demand for new products has been fueling organic growth.

Let’s focus on the factors that make HEICO an attractive investment option.

Zacks Rank & Surprise History

The stock currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 12.27%, on average. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Growth Projections

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s fiscal 2020 earnings is pegged at $2.71 per share on revenues of $2.21billion. The bottom-line figure suggests 17.83% year-over-year increase. The same for the top line calls for a 7.35% rise on a year-on-year basis. The company’s long-term (3 to 5 years) earnings growth rate is pegged at 11.30%.

The consensus mark for the company’s fiscal 2021 earnings is pegged at $2.86 per share on revenues of $2.37billion. The bottom-line figure suggests 5.52% year-over-year increase. The same for the top line calls for a 7.34% rise on a year-on-year basis.

Strong Balance Sheet

HEICO continues to exhibit a solid financial performance. The company exited the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 with cash and cash equivalents of $57 million. Moreover, cash provided by operating activities was $437.4 million at the end of the quarter compared with $328.5 million as of Oct 31, 2018. Such a strong balance sheet and cash flow generation capacity provide the company a financial flexibility in matters of dividend hikes and earnings accretive acquisitions.

Debt/Capital & Current Ratio

HEICO is consistently striving to preserve balance-sheet strength. Currently, the company has a current ratio of 2.81 compared with the industry's 2.34 and the Zacks S&P 500 composite’s 1.22.

The company’s financial strength will enable it to meet near-term debt obligation. Its long-term debt-to-capital ratio is 30.66%, which is lower than the Zacks S&P 500 composite’s 42.92%.

Price Performance

Shares of HEICO have soared 49.3% in past 12 months compared with the industry’s growth of 38.9%.

Other Key Picks

Some other top-ranked stocks from the same sector are Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN) , L3Harris Technologies Inc (NYSE:LHX) and Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) . All three stocks carry a Zack Rank of 2 (Buy).

Raytheon, L3Harris Technologies and Leidos Holdings have trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 8.60%, 5.02% and 8.93%, on average, respectively.

The long-term earnings growth rates for Raytheon, L3Harris Technologies and Leidos are pegged at 10.70%, 8% and 7.50%, respectively.

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