3 Stocks to Buy on New Analyst Coverage
Investors depend on research work provided by analysts as they fear that lack of information while exploring on their own might trigger errors. Here, analysts play a vital intermediary role as they have extensive access to relevant data.
Service Corporation International SCI, Iron Mountain Incorporated IRM, and H&E Equipment Services, Inc. HEES are some stocks that have seen new analyst coverage lately and are therefore expected to attract investors' attention.
Coverage initiation of a stock by analyst(s) usually portrays higher investor inclination. Investors, on their part, often assume that there is something special in a stock to attract analysts to cover it. In other words, they believe that the company coming under the microscope definitely has some value.
Obviously, stocks are not randomly chosen to cover. New coverage on a stock usually reflects a reassuring future envisioned by the analyst(s). At times, increased investors’ focus on a stock motivates analysts to take a closer look at it. After all, who doesn’t love to produce something that is already in demand? Hence, we often find that analysts’ ratings on newly added stocks are more favorable than their ratings on continuously covered stocks.
It is needless to say, the average change in broker recommendation is more preferable than a single recommendation change.
How Does Analyst Coverage Influence Stock Price?
The price movement of a stock is generally a function of the recommendations on it from new analysts. Stocks typically see an upward price movement with a new analyst coverage compared to what is witnessed with a rating upgrade under an existing coverage. Positive recommendations — Buy and Strong Buy — generally lead to a significantly positive price reaction than Hold recommendations. On the contrary, analysts hardly initiate coverage with a Strong Sell or Sell recommendation.
Now, if an analyst gives a new recommendation on a company that has very few or no existing coverage, investors start paying more attention to it. Also, any new information attracts portfolio managers to build a position in the stock.
So, it’s a good strategy to bet on stocks that have seen increased analyst coverage.
Below, we have selected three stocks that have seen increased analyst coverage over the past few weeks.
Screening Criteria
Number of Broker Ratings now greater than the Number of Broker Ratings four weeks ago (this will shortlist stocks that have recent new coverage).
Average Broker Rating less than Average Broker Rating four weeks ago ('less than' means 'better than' four weeks ago).
Increased analyst coverage and improving average rating are the primary criteria of this strategy but one should also consider other relevant parameters to make it foolproof.
Here are the other screening parameters:
Price greater than or equal to $5 (as a stock below $5 will not likely create significant interest for most investors).
Average Daily Volume greater than or equal to 100,000 shares (if volume isn’t enough, it will not attract individual investors).
Here are three out of six stocks that passed the screen:
Service Corporation International: Based in Houston, TX, this company provides deathcare products and services.
SCI currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The stock has gained 27.4% over the past year compared with the industry’s 11.1% growth. Earnings estimates for 2022 have increased 6.4% over the past 30 days, depicting analysts’ optimism for the company’s prospects. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Iron Mountain: IRM is the global leader of storage and information management services.
IRM currently carries a Zacks Rank #1. The stock has gained 38% over the past year compared with the industry’s 12.8% growth. Earnings estimates have increased 5.5% for 2022 over the past 30 days. The estimated figure indicates 12% growth from the year-ago period.
H&E Equipment Services: Based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, H&E Equipment is an integrated equipment services company.
HEES currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The stock has gained 15.5% over the past year versus the industry’s 5.7% decline. Earnings estimates for 2022 have increased 9.6% over the past 30 days. The estimated figure calls for a 34.9% increase from the year-ago period.
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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
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