3 Standout Stocks to Buy After Earnings
Several stocks from a variety of sectors are standing out after beating earnings expectations last Friday. Following their favorable quarterly results now appears to be a good time to buy as earnings estimate revisions are likely to trend higher in the following weeks.
This could very well lead to a nice amount of upside in these stocks and here are three to consider right now.
Booz Allen Hamilton BAH
We’ll start with Booz Allen Hamilton as the management and technology solutions provider was added to the Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) list after posting strong results for its fiscal third quarter last Friday.
Providing cyber expertise, analytics, engineering, and digital solutions to the United States and international governments it's noteworthy that Booz Allen’s Zacks Government Services Industry is in the top 1% of over 250 Zacks industries. Correlating with such Q3 earnings of $1.41 per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus of $1.13 a share by 25% and soared 32% from $1.07 a share in the prior-year quarter.
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Booz Allen was also able to beat top line estimates by 1.54% with Q3 sales at $2.56 billion. Third quarter sales rose 13% year over year and Booz Allen raised its full-year 2024 outlook. The company now sees revenue growth at 14-15% this year compared to previous forecast of 11-14%. Booz Allen now forecasts adjusted earnings at $5.25-$5.40 per share versus previous guidance of $4.95-$5.10 a share.
In addition to this Booz Allen raised its quarterly dividend by 8% to $0.51 a share and has now boosted its yield seven times in the last five years. Notably, Booz Allen’s total return over the last year is a very stellar +56% when including dividends and BAH shares hit 52-week highs of $147.52 last Friday.
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ColgatePalmolive CL
Consumer staples giant Colgate-Palmolive looks attractive following its Q4 results and currently sports a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The home care consumer products company and oral hygiene titan posted Q4 earnings of $0.87 a share which beat expectations by 2%. Fourth quarter earnings jumped 13% YoY with sales of $4.95 billion beating estimates by 1% and rising 7% from $4.62 billion in the comparative quarter.
Furthermore, Colgate has now surpassed earnings expectations in each of its last four quarterly reports with its Latin America and Europe region sales propelling the company of late. Latin America and Europe net sales were up 18% and 10% respectively during Q4. Colgate’s stock is up a respectable +15% over the last year after hitting 52-week highs of $84 a share today. Plus, Colgate’s 2.32% annual dividend yield should keep investors locked in as macroeconomic conditions have improved significantly.
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Gentex GNTX
Lastly, Gentex sports a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) with the automotive original equipment manufacturer posting very reassuring Q4 results. As a provider of automatic-dimming rear-view mirrors and electronics, Gentex’s Q4 earnings of $0.50 a share topped the Zacks Consensus by 13% with sales of $589.13 million coming in 5% better than expected.
Year over year Q4 EPS climbed 37% from $0.37 a share in the comparitive quarter with quartelry sales expanding 19%. Gentex has exceeded earnings expectations in each of its last four quarterly reports posting an impressive average earnings surprise of 12.2%. Quieting fears of a potential negative impact from the UAW strikes, Gentex stock is now up +18% in the last year and is hovering near its 52-week highs of $34.33 a share seen last August. Gentex also offers a modest 1.42% annual dividend yield.
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Bottom Line
Booz Allen Hamilton, Colgate-Palmolive, and Gentex have started to reconfirm their growth expectations with many analysts raising their price targets for these stocks after stong quarterly results making now an ideal time to buy.
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Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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