Finding The Right Stocks

What is the Zacks Rank?

The Zacks Rank is a quantitative model that ranks 4,000 stocks into 5 categories: 1 - Strong Buy , 2 - Buy , 3 - Neutral , 4 - Sell, and 5 - Strong Sell.

The Zacks Rank has been produced weekly for over 15 years and was used exclusively by institutional investors managing billions of dollars in US equities until 1989, when the Zacks Rank was offered to individual investors.

#1 Zacks Rank stocks have averaged an annual return of 45.75% from 1981 to 1997.

What is the Z-100?

The Zacks Model Portfolio is maintained by Ben Zacks, president of Zacks Investment Management and represents Ben's suggestions for stocks that will show the most price appreciation over the next few months.

The Zacks Recommended 100 stock universe, since its inception on February 12, 1996 has shown a return of 79.1% through March 9th, compared to the S&P 500 return of 51.9% during this time.

The Zacks Ranking system (1 to 5) and the stocks in the Z-100 portfolio can both be used by individual investors to achieve exceptional returns. Many stocks are in both. The primary differences between the Zacks Rank and the Z-100 portfolio are the number of stocks and turnover.

The Zacks Rank identifies 150-250 stocks at any time that are ranked #1. These have a 30% per month turnover on average. The Z-100 portfolio is limited to 100 stocks with a 15% per month turnover. The Z-100 portfolio was created by Ben Zacks specifically to reduce turnover. Lower turnover is equivalent to longer holding periods, that is, longer-term investing, which results in lower taxes and lower commission costs.

Where can individual investors find the Zacks Rank and Z-100?

Zacks offers the individual investor three ways to obtain these lists: the printed Analyst Watch, Analyst Watch on the Internet, and the Zacks Letter.

The Zacks Rank and Z-100 Model Portfolio were first included in the printed Analyst Watch service which began publishing in 1989. Since then the Zacks Rank has been included in all four of our Analyst Watch on the Internet services: Company Reports, Custom Screening, Research Marvel and Daily E-Mail Alerts. The Z-100 is available on the Internet in the Zacks Letter

Printed Analyst Watch:

*page 6 - performance of Zacks Rank each year
*page 8 - listing of all Zacks #1 Ranked Stocks
*page 9 - listing of all stocks in the Z-100

Analyst Watch on the Internet:

*Company Report - page 2 - the Z on the histogram of broker recommendations is the Zacks Rank for the stock.
*Interactive Screening - the Zacks Rank is one of the items that can be used in Screening.
*Daily E-Mail Alerts - the Zacks Rank and Changes in the Zacks Rank are shown are shown at the top of each alert report.
*Research Marvel PC Screening Software - the Zacks Rank can be found in the "Valuation" category, and is also listed in each Company snapshot.