Zacks.com Featured Highlights: Gray Television, International Consolidated Airlines Group, Pool And J2 Global

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – February 27, 2017 - Stocks in this week’s article include Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE: GTN – Free Report ), International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:ICAG), S.A. (OTCMKTS: ICAGY – Free Report ), Pool Corporation (NASDAQ: POOL – Free Report ) and j2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: JCOM – Free Report ).

Screen of the Week of Zacks Investment Research:

Forget Profit: Bet on 4 Stocks with Rising Tax Flow

With the bulk of the Q4 earnings releases behind us, investors might be interested in laying a wager on stocks based on profit numbers and surprises. However, looking beyond profits and figuring out a company’s ability to generate cash flows seem to be more prudent.

This is because cash indicates a company’s true financial health. It offers the flexibility to make decisions, the means to make potential investments and the fuel to run its growth engine. In fact, even a company generating profits might face bankruptcy while meeting obligations if it is low on cash flow. However, a sturdy cash balance can safeguard companies in times of market turbulence.

Thus, to effectively find out a company’s resilience and efficiency in generating cash flow, one needs to consider its net cash flow figure. While, in any business, cash moves in and out, it is net cash flow that explains how much money the company is actually generating.

If a company is experiencing a positive cash flow then it denotes an increase in its liquid assets, which gives it the means to meet debt obligations, shell out for expenses, reinvest in business, endure downturns and finally return wealth to shareholders. On the other hand, a negative cash flow indicates a decline in the company’s liquidity, which in turn lowers its flexibility to support these moves.

However, only having a positive cash flow does not secure a company’s prospects. To ride the growth curve, a company must have increasing cash flow which indicates management’s efficiency in regulating its cash movements and reduced dependency on financing sources.

Thus, to scoop up big gains, look beyond profits and select companies with dependable and increasing cash flow.

Screening Parameters:

To find stocks that have seen increasing cash flow over time, we ran the screen for those whose cash flow in the latest reported quarter was at least equal to or greater than the 5-year average cash flow per common share . This implies a positive trend and increasing cash over a period of time.

In addition to this we chose:

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

Average Broker Rating 1: This indicates that brokers are also highly hopeful about the company’s future performance.

Current Price greater than or equal to $5: This sieves out low-priced stocks.

VGM Score of B or better: This score is also of great assistance in selecting stocks. Importantly, this scoring system helps in picking winning stocks in their individual industry categories.

Here are four out of the seven stocks that qualified the screening:

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE: GTN – Free Report ) is a communications company headquartered in Atlanta, GA. It presently owns and operates television stations as well as digital assets in markets across the U.S. The company has a VGM score of B. Its projected growth rate for earnings per share is 68.2% for 2016.

Also, Gray Television logged in a return of 35.0% over the past three months, which is way better than the 13.9% gain witnessed by the Zacks categorized Broadcast Radio And Television industry.

International Consolidated Airlines Group, S.A. (OTCMKTS: ICAGY – Free Report ) is a holding company for British Airways and Iberia engaged in the provision of passenger and cargo transportation services in the U.K., Spain, the U.S. and other countries. The stock has a VGM Score of A. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2017 earnings rose 6% over the last 30 days.

Also, over the past three months, International Consolidated Airlines’ shares have outperformed the Zacks categorized Transportation – Airline industry, recording a return of 16.0% against the industry’s increase of 10.4%.

Pool Corporation (NASDAQ: POOL – Free Report ), headquartered in Covington, LA, is the world's largest wholesale distributor of swimming pool supplies, equipment and related leisure products. The stock has a VGM Style Score of B. Pool is a solid performer, having delivered positive earnings surprises in each of the past four quarters, with an average beat of 19.9%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2017 earnings increased 5.2% to $4.01 per share over the past seven days. Further, the stock outperformed the Zacks Leisure and Recreation Products industry in the last one year. While Pool added 42.2%, the industry gained 9.6% over the said period.

j2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: JCOM – Free Report ), headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, offers Internet services through its segments – Business Cloud Services and Digital Media. The Stock has a VGM Score of A. The company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 2.46% in the trailing four quarters. Moreover, 2017 earnings estimates increased 8.1% to $5.59 per share over the last 30 days. Also, j2 Global gained 21.5% in the last six months while the Zacks Internet Software industry lost 1.6%.

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