Advertisement

The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Calix, Donnelley, ChannelAdvisor, United Natural Foods and Clearwater Paper

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – June 25, 2020 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Calix Inc. CALX, Donnelley Financial Solutions Inc. DFIN, ChannelAdvisor Corp. ECOM, United Natural Foods Inc. UNFI and Clearwater Paper Corp. CLW.

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Don't Miss These 5 Small Hidden Gems in Market Turnaround

Thanks to an impressive turnaround for the last three months, barring some occasional fluctuations, Wall Street has managed to exit the coronavirus-led bear market. The three major stock indexes — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite — have jumped 43.6%, 42.8% and 52.5%, respectively, from their recent lows recorded on Mar 23.

Besides these large-cap centric indexes, the small-cap specific Russell 2000 Index has been performing strongly in the past three months, rallying 49% from its recent low recorded on Mar 18. Several small-cap stocks have skyrocketed more than 50% in the past three months. Here we have selected five with a favorable Zacks Rank and strong growth potential for the near future.

Unprecedented Fiscal and Monetary Stimulus

Small businesses suffered the most owing to the global outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, which forced the U.S. government to impose lockdowns for nearly two months. The economy came to a standstill during that period.

The Trump administration's decision to provide a massive restructuring package to small businesses greatly helped in reviving this space. On Mar 27, the government released a relief package of $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses, provided the firms maintain their payrolls.

Moreover, in April, the U.S. government approved a $480 billion coronavirus relief package with funding earmarked for devastated small businesses and overwhelmed hospitals, and to ramp up testing nationwide during the pandemic.

On Jun 15, the Fed initiated a lending program of up to $600 billion to small and mid-sized businesses. Under this program, businesses with up to 15,000 employees or revenues up to $5 billion will get loan in the range of $250,000 to $300 million for 5 years at a floating rate.

The central bank will encourage retail banks to lend out to struggling companies and will purchase 95% of each loan extended under the facility.

Positive Development

On Jun 9, National Federation of Independent Business reported that the U.S. Small Business Optimism Index got a solid momentum in May, increasing to 94.4 from 90.9 in April. Eight of the 10 components of the index improved last month while two declined. Per the report, the majority of owners is optimistic about future business conditions and expects the ongoing recession to be short-lived.

Notably, small corporates create a significant amount of jobs in the U.S. economy. More than 50% of the newly created jobs in the private sector originate here. These people constitute a large part of customers for big businesses.

Our Top Picks

We have narrowed down our search to five small-cap (market capital , $1 billion) stocks that have skyrocketed more than 50% in the past three months with strong growth potential and robust earnings estimate revisions in past 30 days. Each of our picks sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Calix Inc. provides cloud and software platforms, and systems and services required to deliver the unified access network in the United States, the Middle East, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and internationally.

The company has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 9.1% over the past 30 days. The stock price has soared 119% in the past three months.

Donnelley Financial Solutions Inc. operates as a risk and compliance solutions company in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. It offers content creation, management and distribution, as well as data analytics and multi-lingual localization services.

The company has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 39.3% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 20.7% over the past 30 days. The stock price has jumped 102.5% in the past three months.

ChannelAdvisor Corp. offers cloud-based e-commerce solutions and services. Its solutions include marketplaces, comparison shopping, paid search, social campaigns, flex feeds, web stores and rich media.

The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 72.5% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 6.2% over the past 30 days. The stock price has climbed 99.6% in the past three months.

United Natural Foods Inc. distributes natural, organic, specialty, produce, and conventional grocery and non-food products in the United States and Canada. It operates through the Wholesale and Other segments.

The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 20.2% for the current year (ending July 2020). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 14.7% over the past 30 days. The stock price has rallied 88% in the past three months.

Clearwater Paper Corp. produces and sells private label tissue and bleached paperboard products in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Consumer Products, and Pulp and Paperboard.

The company has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved more than 100% over the past 30 days. The stock price has surged 58.8% in the past three months.

Today's Best Stocks from Zacks

Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%.

This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year.

See their latest picks free >>

Join us on Facbook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts

Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates.

Media Contact

Zacks Investment Research

800-767-3771 ext. 9339

support@zacks.com

https://www.zacks.com

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.


Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
 
Calix, Inc (CALX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Clearwater Paper Corporation (CLW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
ChannelAdvisor Corporation (ECOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Donnelley Financial Solutions Inc. (DFIN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
 
Zacks Investment Research