The S&P 500 Index has grown its annual earnings per share by about 7.2% on average every year over the past five years. The share price of the index has grown by nearly 35% over the past five years to close at $2,848.42 on May 6.
Thus, investors may be interested in Ferguson PLC (FERGY, Financial), Agilent Technologies Inc (A, Financial) and McCormick & Co Inc (MKC, Financial), as these holdings have grown their earnings per share (EPS) without non-recurring items (NRI) by an annual rate of more than 7.2% over the past five years.
Ferguson PLC
The British global distributor of plumbing and heating products grew its trailing 12-month EPS without NRI by an average of nearly 12% per year over the past five full fiscal years.
The stock closed at a price of $6.78 per share on Wednesday for a market capitalization of $15.33 billion, a price-earnings ratio of 15.95 versus the industry median of 11.14 and a price-sales ratio of 0.73 versus the industry median of 0.39.
Wall Street recommends a hold rating for this stock with an average price target of $7.56 per share.
GuruFocus assigned a moderate rating of 5 out of 10 for the company’s financial strength and a high rating of 8 out of 10 for its profitability.
Agilent Technologies Inc
The Santa Clara, California-based provider of application solutions to diagnostics and research organizations grew its trailing 12-month EPS without NRI by a yearly average of nearly 24% over the past five years.
The stock traded at a price of $77.87 per share at close on Wednesday for a market capitalization of $24.11 billion, a price-earnings ratio of 32.26 versus the industry median of 34.42 and a price-sales ratio of 4.7 versus the industry median of 4.3.
As of May, the stock has seven strong buys, four buys and three hold ratings on Wall Street. The average target price is $81.17 per share.
GuruFocus assigned the company a positive financial strength rating of 6 out of 10 and a high profitability rating of 8 out of 10.
McCormick & Co Inc
The Hunt Valley, Maryland-based manufacturer and distributor of flavor products to the food industry grew its trailing 12-month EPS without NRI by a yearly average of 14.4% over the past five full fiscal years.
The stock closed at a price of $160.22 per share on Wednesday for a market capitalization of $21.31 billion, a price-earnings ratio of 30.7 versus the industry median of 18.01 and a price-sales ratio of 4.03 compared to the industry median of 0.82.
As of May, the stock has one strong buy, two buys, ten holds and one underperform rating on Wall Street. The average target price is $134.60.
GuruFocus assigned a moderate score of 4 out of 10 to the company’s financial strength and a high score of 9 out of 10 to the company’s profitability.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any securities mentioned in this article.
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