4 Top Efficient Stocks to Buy in November
Companies with favorable efficiency levels are likely to be on investors’ radar, irrespective of market conditions, as price performance is believed to be positively correlated with efficiency. Efficiency, a company’s ability to transform its inputs into outputs, is a potential indicator of a company’s financial health.
How to Measure Efficiency?
We have considered four popular ratios in order to find efficient companies that have the potential to provide impressive returns.
Inventory Turnover
Inventory level is one of the key indicators of a company’s business health. While a high inventory level may indicate that the company is going through a rough patch in terms of sales, a dwindling level may indicate that the company will run out of stock in a favorable sales condition. This is where inventory turnover comes into play. It is the ratio of 12-month cost of goods sold (COGS) to a 4-quarter average inventory. Thus, a high value of the ratio indicates a low level of inventory relative to COGS, while a low ratio signals that the company has excess inventory.
Receivables Turnover
This ratio is used to measure a company’s capability to extend its credit and collect debts on the basis of that credit. Receivables turnover ratio or the “accounts receivable turnover ratio” or the “debtor’s turnover ratio” is calculated by dividing 12-month sales by four-quarter average receivables. While a high ratio indicates that the company efficiently collects its accounts receivables or has quality customers, a low ratio signals that the company has an inefficient collection procedure or has low-quality customers or an inefficient credit policy.
Asset Utilization
This is a widely used measure of a company’s efficiency. Asset utilization indicates a company’s potential to utilize its assets. It is a ratio of total sales over the past 12 months to the last 4-quarter average of total assets. So, the higher the ratio, the greater is the chance that the company is utilizing its assets efficiently. On the contrary, a low value of the ratio signals that it is failing to use its assets effectively.
Operating Margin
Another popular efficiency ratio is operating margin. Operating profit margin, which is simply operating income over the past 12 months divided by sales over the same period, indicates how well a company is controlling its operating expenses. If a company has a high operating profit margin in relation to its competitors, it is doing a better job at controlling operating expenses.
All these ratios can be considered as effective measures if one compares different companies within a particular sector or industry. This is the reason why we have considered only those companies that have higher ratios than their respective industry averages.
Screening Parameters
In addition to the above mentioned ratios, we have added a favorable Zacks Rank – Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) – to the screen with an objective to make this strategy more profitable.
Inventory Turnover, Receivables Turnover, Asset Utilization and Operating Margin greater than industry average
(Values of these ratios higher than industry averages may indicate that the efficiency level of the company is higher than its peers.)
Zacks Rank better than or equal to #2 (Buy)
(Only Zacks Rank #1 and 2 stocks can get through.)
The use of these few criteria has narrowed down the universe of over 7,904 stocks to only 26. Here are four of the 26 stocks that passed the screen.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. LULU is an athletic apparel company. The company holds a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). It has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 19.2%.
Malibu Boats, Inc. MBUU designs, manufactures, distributes, markets, and sells recreational powerboats. The company, with a Zacks Rank #1, has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 23.4%.
MCBC Holdings, Inc. MCFT innovates, designs, manufactures, and markets sport boats and outboard boats in North America and internationally. This Zacks Rank #1 company has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 18.4%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Lockheed Martin Corporation LMT is a security and aerospace company. The company has a Zacks Rank #2. It has an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 13.9%.
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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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Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Malibu Boats, Inc. (MBUU) : Free Stock Analysis Report
MCBC Holdings, Inc. (MCFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
lululemon athletica inc. (LULU) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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