According to the Historical Data Screen, a new GuruFocus Premium Plus feature, four stocks that have high financial strength and have grown earnings at least 1% every year over the past five years are Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP, Financial), Grand Canyon Education Inc. (LOPE, Financial), MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (MKTX, Financial) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN, Financial).
New Historical Data Screen feature allows for multiyear data screening
GuruFocus' All-in-One Screener received a new feature where Premium Plus members can screen for stocks for multiple periods at once. Figure 1 illustrates sample Historical Data Screen filters involving earnings per share.
Figure 1
Click on the "+" icon next to the desired filter to open up the Historical Data Screen pop-up as illustrated in Figure 1. Enter the desired screening period, filter type and value using the drop-down menus and cells. Figure 1 gives example filters that screen for companies that not only had at least $2 in earnings per share over the past five years, but have also had earnings increase 1% per year during the said period.
As of Thursday, the Screener listed four such companies among the stocks with 10-year-median returns on capital of at least 16% and financial strength and profitability ranks of at least 7, key measures of business quality.
Check Point Software
Check Point Software offers solutions for network, endpoint, cloud and mobile security. GuruFocus ranks the Israel-based company's financial strength and profitability 9 out of 10 on several positive investing signs, which include a strong Altman Z-score of 8, a five-star business predictability rank and an operating margin that outperforms over 98% of global competitors despite contracting approximately 3.3% per year on average over the past five years.
Check Point Software's earnings per share increased approximately 10.20% per year on average over the past five years according to a loglinear regression model.
Gurus with large holdings in Check Point Software include Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio)' Renaissance Technologies and John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio)' Ariel Investments.
Grand Canyon Education
Headquartered in Phoenix, Grand Canyon Education offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs in business, education, nursing, health and liberal arts. GuruFocus ranks the company's financial strength and profitability 8 out of 10 on several positive investing signs, which include a strong Altman Z-score of 10, a three-star business predictability rank and an operating margin that has increased approximately 6% per year on average over the past five years and is outperforming over 88% of global competitors.
Grand Canyon Education's three-year average earnings growth rate of 19.50% outperforms 61.69% of global competitors.
MarketAxess
MarketAxess operates an electronic trading platform that enables fixed-income market participants to trade corporate bonds and other types of fixed-income instruments using patented trading technology. GuruFocus ranks the New York-based company's profitability 10 out of 10 on several positive investing signs, which include a high Piotroski F-score of 7, a four-star business predictability rank and an operating margin that has increased approximately 1.2% per year on average over the past five years and outperforms over 86% of global competitors.
MarketAxess' three-year-average earnings growth rate of 17.4% outperforms 67.1% of global competitors.
Regeneron
Regeneron discovers, develops and commercializes products that fight eye disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer and inflammation. GuruFocus ranks the Tarrytown, New York-based company's financial strength and profitability 8 out of 10 on several positive investing signs, which include a strong Altman Z-score of 9.23, a return on assets that outperforms 97.22% of global competitors and an operating margin that has increased approximately 2% per year on average over the past five years and outperforms over 95% of global biotech companies.
Regeneron's three-year average earnings growth rate of 33.8% outperforms 80.39% of global competitors.
Disclosure: No positions.
Read more here:
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- 4 Russell 2000 Companies With High Financial Strength
- 3 UK-Based Stocks With Expanding Margins Over the Past 3 Years
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