The Analyst Anomaly Strategy was developed for investors seeking the potential for higher than market returns through the use of a concentrated portfolio of analyst recommended equities. The Analyst Momentum strategy is based on the Zacks Analyst Anomaly Folio available through Foliofn. Since higher returns come with higher risk, investors in this portfolio must be able to accept higher than average short-term price fluctuations in order to seek above average returns. Due to this possible short-term volatility, capital appreciation with a longer-term focus is the primary objective of this portfolio. The Zacks Analyst Anomaly Folio — created and maintained by Zacks Investment Research — focuses on the Analyst anomaly which indicates that despite being publicly available information, analyst recommendations and earnings forecasts can be used to predict future stock prices. Like the Analyst Upgrades strategy, this strategy is expected to have high turnover rates.
Objective
The goal of the Analyst Momentum strategy is to earn capital appreciation with a long-term focus. This strategy was developed for investors who were seeking market-beating returns through an analyst-info based portfolio.
Investor Profile
Suitable for investors who are willing to accept above average near-term volatility to obtain higher long-term returns with an objective of capital appreciation.
Fund Strategy
The Analyst Momentum strategy is based on the Zacks Analyst Anomaly Folio available through FOLIOfn. Despite being publicly available information, analyst recommendations and earnings forecasts can be used to predict future stock prices. Research has shown that many of the outperforming stocks had improving analyst recommendations and earnings estimates over the last four weeks and that the price/sales ratio is a strong complimentary valuation metric in the presence of analyst information.
Stock Selection Process
Investments are selected if they meet the following five criteria:
- Start with the largest 3,000 publicly tradable US listed stocks, with an average trading volume above 100,000 shares per day, and a current stock price greater than $5
- Keep only those with a price/sales ratio in the bottom 10%
- Narrow the list to the 75 stocks with the best improvement in analyst ratings
- Invest in the 10 stocks with the highest percentage change in the quarterly earnings estimate
- All stocks are equally weighted and rebalanced weekly