It doesn’t matter your age or experience: taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals for all investors. Luckily, Zacks Premium offers several different ways to do both.
Featuring daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank, full access to the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research reports, and Premium stock screens, the research service can help you become a smarter, more self-assured investor.
It also includes access to the Zacks Style Scores.
What are the Zacks Style Scores?
The Zacks Style Scores, developed alongside the Zacks Rank, are complementary indicators that rate stocks based on three widely-followed investing methodologies; they also help investors pick stocks with the best chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.
Each stock is given an alphabetic rating of A, B, C, D or F based on their value, growth, and momentum qualities. With this system, an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on, meaning the better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform.
The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:
Value Score
Value investors love finding good stocks at good prices, especially before the broader market catches on to a stock’s true value. Utilizing ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and many other multiples, the Value Style Score identifies the most attractive and most discounted stocks.
Growth Score
Growth investors, on the other hand, are more concerned with a company’s financial strength and health, and its future outlook. The Growth Style Score examines things like projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow to find stocks that will experience sustainable growth over time.
Momentum Score
Momentum traders and investors live by the saying “the trend is your friend.” This investing style is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock’s price or earnings outlook. Employing factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates, the Momentum Style Score can indicate favorable times to build a position in high-momentum stocks.
VGM Score
If you like to use all three kinds of investing, then the VGM Score is for you. It’s a combination of all Style Scores, and is an important indicator to use with the Zacks Rank. The VGM Score rates each stock on their shared weighted styles, narrowing down the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum.
How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank
The Zacks Rank is a proprietary stock-rating model that harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company’s earnings expectations, to help investors build a successful portfolio.
Investors can count on the Zacks Rank’s success, with #1 (Strong Buy) stocks producing an unmatched +23.86% average annual return since 1988, more than double the S&P 500’s performance. But the model rates a large number of stocks, and there are over 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, plus another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.
With more than 800 top-rated stocks to choose from, it can certainly feel overwhelming to pick the ones that are right for you and your investing journey.
That’s where the Style Scores come in.
To have the best chance of big returns, you’ll want to always consider stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B, which will give you the highest probability of success. If you’re looking at stocks with a #3 (Hold) rank, it’s important they have Scores of A or B as well to ensure as much upside potential as possible.
Since the Scores were created to work together with the Zacks Rank, the direction of a stock’s earnings estimate revisions should be a key factor when choosing which stocks to buy.
Here’s an example: a stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, even one with Style Scores of A and B, still has a downward-trending earnings outlook, and a bigger chance its share price will decrease too.
Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.
Stock to Watch: PENN Entertainment (PENN)
PENN Entertainment was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1982 as PNRC Corp. The company’s current name was formulated in 1994 when it became a publicly-traded company. PENN Entertainment is a leading, multi-jurisdictional owner and manager of gaming and racing facilities with video gaming terminal operations and a focus on slot machine entertainment. The company is geographically widespread with a vast portfolio.
PENN is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of A.
Additionally, the company could be a top pick for growth investors. PENN has a Growth Style Score of A, forecasting year-over-year earnings growth of 118.5% for the current fiscal year.
For fiscal 2026, two analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.18 to $1.08 per share. PENN boasts an average earnings surprise of +93.6%.
With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Growth and VGM Style Scores, PENN should be on investors’ short list.
Research Chief Names “Single Best Pick to Double”
From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.
This company targets millennial and Gen Z audiences, generating nearly $1 billion in revenue last quarter alone. A recent pullback makes now an ideal time to jump aboard. Of course, all our elite picks aren’t winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months.
Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners Up
PENN Entertainment, Inc. (PENN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nasdaq.com ’
