Looking for a Growth Stock? 3 Reasons Why Spirit Aerosystems (SPR) is a Solid Choice
Growth investors focus on stocks that are seeing above-average financial growth, as this feature helps these securities garner the market's attention and deliver solid returns. But finding a great growth stock is not easy at all.
That's because, these stocks usually carry above-average risk and volatility. In fact, betting on a stock for which the growth story is actually over or nearing its end could lead to significant loss.
However, the Zacks Growth Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which looks beyond the traditional growth attributes to analyze a company's real growth prospects, makes it pretty easy to find cutting-edge growth stocks.
Spirit Aerosystems (SPR) is one such stock that our proprietary system currently recommends. The company not only has a favorable Growth Score, but also carries a top Zacks Rank.
Studies have shown that stocks with the best growth features consistently outperform the market. And returns are even better for stocks that possess the combination of a Growth Score of A or B and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy).
While there are numerous reasons why the stock of this aircraft parts maker is a great growth pick right now, we have highlighted three of the most important factors below:
Earnings Growth
Earnings growth is arguably the most important factor, as stocks exhibiting exceptionally surging profit levels tend to attract the attention of most investors. For growth investors, double-digit earnings growth is highly preferable, as it is often perceived as an indication of strong prospects (and stock price gains) for the company under consideration.
While the historical EPS growth rate for Spirit Aerosystems is 14.2%, investors should actually focus on the projected growth. The company's EPS is expected to grow 20.8% this year, crushing the industry average, which calls for EPS growth of 15.7%.
Impressive Asset Utilization Ratio
Growth investors often overlook asset utilization ratio, also known as sales-to-total-assets (S/TA) ratio, but it is an important feature of a real growth stock. This metric exhibits how efficiently a firm is utilizing its assets to generate sales.
Right now, Spirit Aerosystems has an S/TA ratio of 1.29, which means that the company gets $1.29 in sales for each dollar in assets. Comparing this to the industry average of 0.81, it can be said that the company is more efficient.
While the level of efficiency in generating sales matters a lot, so does the sales growth of a company. And Spirit Aerosystems looks attractive from a sales growth perspective as well. The company's sales are expected to grow 12.6% this year versus the industry average of 3.8%.
Promising Earnings Estimate Revisions
Superiority of a stock in terms of the metrics outlined above can be further validated by looking at the trend in earnings estimate revisions. A positive trend is of course favorable here. Empirical research shows that there is a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
The current-year earnings estimates for Spirit Aerosystems have been revising upward. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has surged 0.7% over the past month.
Bottom Line
While the overall earnings estimate revisions have made Spirit Aerosystems a Zacks Rank #1 stock, it has earned itself a Growth Score of A based on a number of factors, including the ones discussed above.
You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
This combination positions Spirit Aerosystems well for outperformance, so growth investors may want to bet on it.
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
Spirit Aerosystems
Holdings, Inc. (SPR) : Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on
Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research