Zacks.com featured highlights: Micron Technology, Nexstar Media Group, Gulfport Energy and Barclays
Is (MCS) Outperforming Other Consumer Discretionary Stocks This Year? · Zacks

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 12, 2017 - Stocks in this week’s article include Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:MU – Free Report), Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NXST – Free Report), Gulfport Energy Corporation (Nasdaq:GPOR – Free Report) and Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS – Free Report).

Screen of the Week of Zacks Investment Research:

4 High Earnings Yield Stocks to Boost Your Portfolio

For intelligent investors who intend to invest money either in bonds or stocks, information on certain key financial parameters is very important. One such key parameter is earnings yield. It is the reciprocal of the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. This ratio is vital for tracking undervalued stocks. It also comes in handy for comparing stocks with the market or fixed income securities.

Earnings yield can be derived as (Annual Earnings per Share/Market Price) x 100. While comparing stocks from the same sector or industry, the one with higher earnings yield is likely to fetch better returns.

For comparing the performance of a market index with the 10-year Treasury yield, this ratio is very useful. When the yield of the market index is higher than the 10-year Treasury yield, the stocks can be dubbed as undervalued in comparison to bonds. This indicates that investing in the stock market is a better choice for a value investor.

Investment in Treasury-bill is risk free. However, investing in stocks always comes with a caveat. Hence, it is a good idea to add a risk premium to Treasury yield while comparing it with the earnings yield of a stock or the broader market.

The Winning Strategy

We have set Earnings Yield greater than 9% as our primary screening criterion, but it alone cannot be used for picking stocks that have the potential to generate solid returns. So, we have added the following parameters to the screen:

Estimated EPS growth for the next 12 months greater than or equal to the S&P 500:This metric compares the 12-month forward EPS estimate with the 12-month actual EPS.

Average Daily Volume (20 Day) greater than or equal to 100,000:High trading volume implies that a stock has adequate liquidity.

Current Price greater than or equal to $5.

Buy-Rated Stocks:Stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) have been known to outperform peers in any type of market environment.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Here are four of the 10 stocks that made it through the screen:

Boise, ID-based Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:MU – Free Report) is a semiconductor systems provider. It has a Zacks Rank #1 and an expected EPS growth rate of 10% for the next 3–5 years.