Bet on These 4 Top-Ranked Liquid Stocks for Exciting Returns

Investors seeking strong returns may allocate their assets to stocks with significant liquidity. Liquidity is an important yardstick that indicates a company’s capability to meet debt obligations by converting assets into cash.

A company with a favorable liquidity position has the potential to generate higher returns as liquidity drives growth. However, one should be prudent enoughbefore investing in such stocks. While a high liquidity level may imply that the company is meeting its obligations at a faster rate than its peers, it may also indicate that it is failing to use its assets efficiently.

Hence, the efficiency level of a company should be considered in addition to its liquidity to identify potential winners as this combination indicates underlying financial strength.

Measures to Identify Liquid Stocks

Current Ratio: It measures current assets relative to current liabilities. This ratio is used for measuring a company’s potential to meet both short- and long-term debt obligations. Thus, a current ratio — also known as working capital ratio — below 1 indicates that the company has more liabilities than assets. However, a high current ratio does not always indicate that the company is in good financial shape. It may also mean that the company has failed to utilize its assets significantly. Hence, a range of 1 to 3 is considered ideal.

Quick Ratio: Unlike current ratio, quick ratio — also called “acid-test ratio" or "quick assets ratio" — indicates a company’s ability to pay short-term obligations. It considers inventory excluding current assets relative to current liabilities. Like the current ratio, a quick ratio of greater than 1 is desirable.

Cash Ratio: This is the most conservative ratio among the three, as it takes into account only cash and cash equivalents, and invested funds relative to current liabilities. It measures a company’s ability to meet its current debt obligations using the most liquid of assets. Though a cash ratio of more than 1 may point to sound financials, a higher number may indicate inefficiency in cash utilization.

So, a ratio greater than 1 is desirable at all times but may not always appropriately represent a company’s financial condition.

Screening Parameters

In order to pick the best of the lot, we have added asset utilization, which is a widely used measure of a company’s efficiency, as one of the screening criteria. Asset utilization is the ratio of total sales over the past 12 months to the last four-quarter average of total assets. Though this ratio varies across industries, companies with a ratio higher than their respective industries can be considered efficient.

In order to ensure that these liquid and efficient stocks have solid growth potential, we have added our proprietary Growth Style Score to the screen.

Current Ratio, Quick Ratio and Cash Ratio between 1 and 3 (While liquidity ratios of greater than 1 are desirable, significantly high ratios may indicate inefficiency.)

Asset utilization greater than industry average (Higher asset utilization than the industry average indicates a company’s efficiency.)

Zacks Rank equal to #1 (Only Strong Buy-rated stocks can get through). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Growth Score less than or equal to B (Back-tested results show that stocks with a Growth Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 handily beat other stocks.)

These criteria have narrowed down the universe of more than 7,700 stocks to only five.

Here are four of the five stocks that qualified the screen:

Miami, FL-basedVector Group Ltd. VGR primarily engages in the manufacturing and sale of cigarettes and the sale of information processing systems. The company has a Growth Score of A and delivered average four-quarter positive surprise of 59.96%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has been raised 54% to 57 cents over the last 60 days.

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. KL engages in the acquisition, exploration, development and operation of gold properties. The company has a Growth Score of A and pulled off average four-quarter positive surprise of 6.07%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 earnings has been revised 7% upward to $2.22 in the last 60 days.

New York, NY-based Och-Ziff Capital Management Group Inc. OZM provides investment advisory services for its clients. The company has a Growth Score of A and delivered average four-quarter positive surprise of 41.1%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2019 earnings has been revised 9.3% upward to $2.46 over the last 60 days.

Domiciled in El Segundo, CA, Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. AJRD designs, develops, manufactures and sells aerospace and defense products and systems in the United States. The company has an impressive Growth Score of B and average four-quarter positive surprise of 25.46%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.9 for the current year has moved 13.8% north over the last 60 days.

Get the rest of the stocks on the list and start putting this and other ideas to the test. It can all be done with the Research Wizard stock picking and back testing software.

The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out.

Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today.

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.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
 
Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (AJRD) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (OZM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Vector Group Ltd. (VGR) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. (KL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
 
Zacks Investment Research