3 Reasons Growth Investors Will Love Robert Half (RHI)
Robert Half (RHI) possesses solid growth attributes, which could help it handily outperform the market.
Investors seek growth stocks to capitalize on above-average growth in financials that help these securities grab the market's attention and produce exceptional returns. But finding a growth stock that can live up to its true potential can be a tough task.
In addition to volatility, these stocks carry above-average risk by their very nature. Also, one could end up losing from a stock whose growth story is actually over or nearing its end.
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.
Robert Half (RHI) 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.
Research shows that stocks carrying the best growth features consistently beat the market. And for stocks that have a combination of a Growth Score of A or B and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy), returns are even better.
While there are numerous reasons why the stock of this staffing firm 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 Robert Half is 7.6%, investors should actually focus on the projected growth. The company's EPS is expected to grow 95.7% this year, crushing the industry average, which calls for EPS growth of 84.6%.
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, Robert Half has an S/TA ratio of 2.22, which means that the company gets $2.22 in sales for each dollar in assets. Comparing this to the industry average of 1.84, it can be said that the company is more efficient.
In addition to efficiency in generating sales, sales growth plays an important role. And Robert Half is well positioned from a sales growth perspective too. The company's sales are expected to grow 24.5% this year versus the industry average of 17.3%.
Promising Earnings Estimate Revisions
Beyond the metrics outlined above, investors should consider the trend in earnings estimate revisions. A positive trend is a plus 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 Robert Half have been revising upward. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has surged 5.4% over the past month.
Bottom Line
Robert Half has not only earned a Growth Score of B based on a number of factors, including the ones discussed above, but it also carries a Zacks Rank #1 because of the positive earnings estimate revisions.
You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
This combination positions Robert Half well for outperformance, so growth investors may want to bet on it.
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