U.S. stock markets have been facing severe volatility since the beginning of 2025. Market participants are concerned about the forward trajectory of both inflation and interest rates. Moreover, treasury yields remain elevated.
Investors also remained concerned about the impact of the Trump administration’s protectionist tariff policies. This week, the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek’s large language model R1 created a ruckus in the U.S. technology sector. Moreover, a strong U.S. economy, a resilient labor market and sticky inflation have raised concerns about the number of interest rate cuts this year.
Consequently, a handful of stocks have shown price strength. We have primarily targeted stocks that have recently been on a bull run. Such stocks have a high chance of carrying the momentum forward.
Five such stocks are — OppFi Inc. OPFI, Corcept Therapeutics Inc. CORT, DXP Enterprises Inc. DXPE, Perpetua Resources Corp. PPTA and Graham Corp. GHM.
If a stock is continuously witnessing an uptrend, there must be a solid reason or it would have probably crashed. So, looking at stocks capable of beating the benchmark that they have set for themselves seems rational.
However, recent price strength alone cannot create magic. Therefore, other relevant parameters are needed to create a successful investment strategy.
Here’s how you should create the screen to shortlist the current as well as the potential winners.
Screening Parameters:
Percentage Change in Price (4 Weeks) greater than zero: This criterion shows that the stock has moved higher in the last four weeks.
Percentage Change Price (12 Weeks) greater than 10: This indicates that the stock has seen momentum over the last three months. This lowers the risk of choosing stocks that may have drawn attention due to the overwhelming performance of the overall market in a very short period.
Zacks Rank 1: No matter whether market conditions are good or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) have a proven history of outperformance. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Average Broker Rating 1: This indicates that brokers are also highly hopeful about the stock’s future performance.
Current Price greater than 5: The stocks must all be trading at a minimum of $5.
Current Price/ 52-Week High-Low Range more than 85%: This criterion filters stocks that are trading near their respective 52-week highs. It indicates that these are strong enough in terms of price.
Just these few criteria narrowed down the search from over 7,700 stocks to five.
Let’s discuss these five stocks here:
OppFi Inc. is a tech-enabled specialty finance platform that broadens the reach of community banks to extend credit access to everyday Americans. OPFI supports consumers, who are turned away by mainstream options, to build financial health, through transparency, responsible lending, financial inclusion, and a better customer experience.
The stock price of OppFi has soared 81.2% in the past four weeks. The company has expected earnings growth of 16.3% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 16.3% over the last 60 days.
Corcept Therapeutics Inc. is engaged in the discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of severe endocrinologic, oncologic, metabolic, and neurologic disorders in the United States. CORT offers Korlym tablets medication for the treatment of hyperglycemia secondary to hypercortisolism in adult patients with endogenous Cushing's syndrome, and for those who have type 2 diabetes mellitus or glucose intolerance and have failed surgery or are not candidates for surgery.
CORT is also developing relacorilant, which is in phase III clinical trial for the treatment of Cushing's syndrome, treatment for adrenal cancer and cortisol excess, which is in phase 1b clinical trial, treatment for prostate cancer which is in phase II clinical trial and nab-paclitaxel in combination with relacorilant, which is in phase III clinical trial to treat platinum-resistant ovarian tumors.
The stock price of Corcept Therapeutics has jumped 20.4% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 36.4% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings improved 3.4% over the last 90 days.
DXP Enterprises Inc. is a leading products and service distributor that adds value and total cost savings solutions to industrial customers throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Dubai.
DXPE provides innovative pumping solutions, supply-chain services and maintenance, repair, operating and production services. DXPE's breadth of MROP products and service solutions allows it to be flexible and customer-driven, creating competitive advantages for our customers.
The stock price of DXP Enterprises has climbed 19.8% in the past four weeks. The company has expected earnings growth of 5.9% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 11.7% over the last 60 days.
Perpetua Resources Corp. is engaged in the exploration and development of mineral properties in the United States. PPTA primarily explores gold, silver, and antimony deposits.
PPTA is focused on the exploration, site restoration and redevelopment of gold-antimony-silver deposits principally in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district of central Idaho which are encompassed by the Stibnite Gold Project.
The stock price of Perpetua Resources has advanced 6.7% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 25.4% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 20% over the last 60 days.
Graham Corp. designs and builds vacuum and heat-transfer equipment for process industries and energy markets worldwide. GHM’s products include steam jet ejector vacuum systems and liquid ring vacuum pumps, surface condensers, Heliflows, water heaters, and various types of heat exchangers. GHM markets to chemical, petrochemical, petroleum refining, and electric power generating industries, including cogeneration and geothermal plants.
The stock price of Graham rose 0.5% in the past four weeks. The company has expected earnings growth of more than 100% for the current year (ending March 2025). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 13.7% over the last 90 days.
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.
7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days
Just released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers "Most Likely for Early Price Pops."
Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +24.3% per year. So be sure to give these hand picked 7 your immediate attention.
See them now >>DXP Enterprises, Inc. (DXPE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Graham Corporation (GHM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (CORT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Perpetua Resources Corp. (PPTA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
OppFi Inc. (OPFI) : Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
