Core Viewpoint - Investors often prefer stocks with a low price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, believing that a lower P/E indicates higher stock value and potential for growth [1] Group 1: P/E Ratio Insights - Stocks with a rising P/E ratio can also yield strong returns, indicating that investors are willing to pay more for expected future earnings growth [2][3] - A rising P/E ratio suggests investor confidence in a company's fundamentals and anticipated positive performance [4] - Historical data shows that stocks can experience P/E ratio increases of over 100% from their breakout points, highlighting the potential for significant gains if stocks are selected early in their breakout cycle [5] Group 2: Stock Screening Criteria - The screening parameters for identifying stocks with increasing P/E include: - Current year EPS growth estimate should be greater than or equal to last year's actual growth [7] - Price changes over four weeks should exceed those over 12 weeks, and similarly for 12 weeks compared to 24 weeks, indicating consistent price increases [7][8] - Price change for 12 weeks should be at least 20% higher than for 24 weeks, but not exceed 100%, suggesting an impending uptrend [8] Group 3: Selected Stocks - The screening process narrowed down over 7,700 stocks to 83, with notable mentions including: - Comfort Systems USA (Zacks Rank 1) with an average four-quarter earnings surprise of 17.57% [9][10] - MasTec (Zacks Rank 2) with an average four-quarter earnings surprise of 26.03% [10] - Virgin Galactic (Zacks Rank 2) with an average four-quarter earnings surprise of 21.99% [11] - AeroVironment (Zacks Rank 2) with an average four-quarter earnings surprise of 18.40% [11] - Blackbaud (Zacks Rank 1) with an average four-quarter earnings surprise of 1.20% [12]