Citizens Financial Services (CZFS) is on the Move, Here's Why the Trend Could be Sustainable

Core Viewpoint - The article emphasizes the importance of identifying sustainable trends in short-term investing to maximize profitability, highlighting the utility of a specific screening strategy to find stocks with strong fundamentals and positive price momentum [1][2]. Group 1: Stock Screening Strategy - The "Recent Price Strength" screen is designed to identify stocks with sufficient fundamental strength to maintain an upward price trend, focusing on those trading in the upper portion of their 52-week high-low range, indicating bullishness [3]. - Citizens Financial Services (CZFS) is highlighted as a candidate that passed the screening, showing a solid price increase of 13.5% over the past 12 weeks, reflecting investor confidence in its potential upside [4]. - CZFS has also maintained a price increase of 2.9% over the last four weeks, indicating that the upward trend is still intact, and it is currently trading at 81.3% of its 52-week high-low range, suggesting a potential breakout [5]. Group 2: Fundamental Strength - CZFS holds a Zacks Rank 1 (Strong Buy), placing it in the top 5% of over 4,000 ranked stocks based on earnings estimate revisions and EPS surprises, which are critical for near-term price movements [6]. - The Zacks Rank system has a strong historical performance, with Zacks Rank 1 stocks averaging an annual return of +25% since 1988, indicating the reliability of this ranking system [7]. - The average broker recommendation for CZFS is also 1 (Strong Buy), reflecting high optimism from the brokerage community regarding its near-term price performance [7]. Group 3: Additional Insights - The article suggests that CZFS's price trend is unlikely to reverse soon, and encourages investors to explore other stocks that meet the criteria of the "Recent Price Strength" screen [8]. - The Zacks Research Wizard is mentioned as a tool for backtesting stock-picking strategies, which can help investors identify successful investment opportunities based on historical performance [9].