Stocks

The Driving Force Behind Alkermes's Impressively Robust Momentum in the Stock Market

Published March 12, 2024

Investors striving to enhance their portfolios and gain confidence in the stock market often seek ways to identify strong, outperforming investments. A key approach to stock selection involves understanding and leveraging investment styles that cater to market-beating strategies.

Understanding Zacks Style Scores

The Zacks Style Scores system is a revolutionary guide that assigns ratings to stocks based on three widely recognized investment strategies. It serves as a supplementary tool to the Zacks Rank, aiming to aid investors in finding securities with the best odds of excelling in the market over a one-month horizon.

Every stock is assigned a rating from A to F based on value, growth, and momentum aspects, with an A rating indicating a higher likelihood of outperformance. The scores fall into four categories: Value, Growth, Momentum, and the comprehensive VGM Score.

Value Score focuses on identifying undervalued stocks by using various financial ratios. Growth Score examines projected and historical financials to detect stocks with promising long-term growth potential. Momentum Score capitalizes on market trends to spot high-momentum investment opportunities.

Integrating Style Scores with the Zacks Rank

The long-established Zacks Rank is built upon earnings estimate revisions to simplify the process of creating a winning portfolio. It boasts a remarkable history, with its top-rated #1 (Strong Buy) stocks delivering an average annual return of +25.41% since 1988.

Though hundreds of stocks achieve a #1 or #2 (Buy) rank at any given time, the Zacks Style Scores assist in narrowing down choices by recommending stocks with the highest scores of A or B to pair with high Zacks Ranks. This ensures investors are focusing on stocks with the most potential for success.

Momentum investors should look at Alkermes plc (ALKS), a company in the Medical field, which scores a high A in both the Momentum and VGM categories, while being ranked as a #3 (Hold) in the Zacks Rank.

With a recent uptick of 0.3% in share prices over four weeks and positive adjustments by analysts for the fiscal year 2024 earnings estimates, ALKS shows promise. The company has also displayed an impressive average earnings surprise of 49.4%.

Given its robust Zacks Rank and superior Style Scores, Alkermes emerges as a compelling candidate for investors' focus.

Investment, Performance, Strategy