Robust Sales Growth Makes These 5 Stocks Worth Buying Now

Strong sales growth is one of the most important characteristics of potential winners in the stock market. The companies that put more emphasis on sales management have a competitive advantage, as solid sales generally get converted into growth.

Revenues are often more closely monitored than earnings when assessing growth of a business. This is because investors want to make sure whether a business has the capability of generating more sales over time to cater to an expanding customer base.

Flat or declining sales rise indicates obstacles at the company and offers limited scope for sustained growth. Stagnant companies may generate near-term profit, but do not ensure enough growth to attract new investors.

Without robust top-line growth, bottom-line improvement may not be sustainable over the long term. While a company can show earnings strength by reducing expenses, a sustainable bottom-line recovery usually requires strong sales growth.

Nonetheless, sales growth in isolation doesn’t indicate much about a company’s future performance. Though it provides investors an insight into product demand and pricing power, a huge sales number is not necessarily translated into profits.

So, taking into consideration a company’s cash position along with its sales number can prove to be a more dependable strategy. Substantial cash in hand and a steady cash flow give a company more flexibility with respect to business decisions and potential investments. Most importantly, an adequate cash position suggests that revenues are being channelized in the right direction.

Selecting the Winning Stocks

In order to shortlist stocks that have witnessed impressive sales growth along with a high cash balance, we have selected 5-Year Historical Sales Growth (%) greater than X-Industry and Cash Flow more than $500 million as our main screening parameters.

But sales growth and cash strength are not the absolute criteria for selecting stocks. So, we added certain other factors to arrive at a winning strategy.

P/S Ratio less than X-Industry: This metric determines the value placed on each dollar of a company’s revenues. The lower the ratio, the better it is for picking a stock since the investor is paying less for each unit of sales.

% Change F1 Sales Estimate Revisions (four weeks) greater than X-Industry: Estimate revisions, better than the industry, are often seen to trigger an increase in stock price.

Operating Margin (average last five years) greater than 5%: Operating margin measures how much every dollar of a company's sales translates into profits. A high ratio indicates that the company has good cost control and sales are increasing faster than costs — an optimal situation for it.

Return on Equity (ROE) greater than 5%: This metric will ensure that sales growth is translated into profits and the company is not hoarding cash. A high ROE means the company is spending wisely and is in all likelihood profitable.

Zacks Rank less than or equal to 2: Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) stocks are known to outperform irrespective of the market environment. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Here are five of the 19 stocks that qualified the screening:

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) operates as a roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee. This Seattle, WA-based company’s expected sales growth rate for fiscal 2019 is 6.2%, and it carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Based in Baltimore, MD, T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ:TROW) is a publicly owned investment manager. Expected sales growth rate for 2019 is 3.7%, and the stock sports a Zacks Rank #1.

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) , headquartered in Burlington, NC, is an independent clinical laboratory company. Its expected sales growth rate for 2019 is 1.2%, and the stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, Carlisle Companies (NYSE:CSL) is a diversified manufacturing company. The company’s expected sales growth rate for 2019 is 8.1%, and it sports a Zacks Rank #1.

FleetCor Technologies (NYSE:FLT) provides commercial payment solutions. This Peachtree Corners, GA-based company’s sales are expected to increase at the rate of 8.3% for 2019.The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.

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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

Carlisle Companies Incorporated (CSL): Free Stock Analysis Report

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (TROW): Free Stock Analysis Report

FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (FLT): Free Stock Analysis Report

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH): Free Stock Analysis Report

Starbucks Corporation (SBUX): Free Stock Analysis Report

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Zacks Investment Research