Given the current upbeat market performance, it is difficult for retail investors to choose stocks independently and generate solid returns. For this, one has to understand the fundamentals of the company and try to place them against the current economic background to figure out how the stock may fare as an investment. 

One way to cut short this task is to follow brokers’ recommendations. Stocks like Wolverine World Wide, Inc. WWW, BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. BMRN, Datadog, Inc. DDOG, Progressive Corp. PGR and Klaviyo, Inc. KVYO are worth betting on.

As brokers directly communicate with top management, they have more insight into what is happening in a particular company. They assess a company’s publicly available documents and even attend conference calls.

Brokers have more understanding of the overall sector and industry. They place company fundamentals against the current economic backdrop to determine how a particular stock will fare as an investment.

When brokers upgrade a stock, one can easily rely on their judgment. Yet, depending on broker upgrades is not enough to build your investment portfolio. Several other factors should be taken into account to ensure steady returns.

Selecting the Winning Strategy

We have a screening strategy that will help in your search for potential winners:

Broker Rating Upgrades (Four Weeks) of 1% or More: The screen selects stocks that have witnessed broker rating upgrades of 1% or more over the last four weeks.

Current Price Greater Than $5: The stocks must trade above $5.

Average 20-Day Volume Greater Than 100,000: A large trading volume guarantees that the stock is easily tradable.

Zacks Rank Equal to #1 or 2: Despite good or bad market conditions, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) have a proven record of success. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

VGM Score of A or B: Our research shows that stocks with a VGM Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2, offer the best upside potential.

5 Stocks With Upgraded Brokers Ratings

Based in Rockford, MI, Wolverine is engaged in the designing, manufacturing and distribution of a wide variety of casual as well as active apparel and footwear. WWW also manufactures children’s footwear and specially designed boots and accessories for industrial purposes.

Wolverine’s 2024 earnings are expected to skyrocket 1600% year over year. WWW, sporting a Zacks Rank #1, has witnessed a 12.5% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.

Headquartered in San Rafael, CA, BioMarin focuses on the development and commercialization of treatments for life-threatening severe medical conditions, mainly for children. BMRN has a collaboration agreement with Sanofi’s subsidiary, Genzyme, for Aldurazyme. Genzyme is BioMarin's sole customer for Aldurazyme and is responsible for marketing and selling Aldurazyme to third parties.

BioMarin’s 2024 earnings are projected to grow at the rate of 54.3% on a year-over-year basis. The company, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, has witnessed an 8% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.

Datadog, based in New York, is a monitoring and analytics platform for developers, IT operations teams and business users in the cloud age. DDOG’s business runs around its portfolio of more than 400 out-of-the-box integrations, including public cloud, private cloud, on-premise hardware, databases and third-party software.

Datadog’s 2024 earnings are expected to jump 22.7%. DDOG, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, has witnessed a 2.6% upward revision in broker ratings in the past four weeks.

Headquartered in Tampa, FL, Progressive Corp is one of the major auto insurers in the country.  PGR is a leading independent agency writer of private passenger auto coverage and the market leader for motorcycle products. 

Progressive Corp’s 2024 earnings are projected to surge 99.7% on a year-over-year basis. PGR, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, has witnessed a 10% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.

Based in Boston, MA, Klaviyo provides a software-as-a-service platform globally. It offers Klaviyo, a cloud-native platform for data store, segmentation engine, campaigns and flows, and messaging infrastructure.

Klaviyo’s 2024 earnings are expected to rise 33.3% year over year. KVYO, carrying a Zacks Rank #2, has witnessed a 6.3% upward revision in broker ratings over the past four weeks.

Get the remaining stock on the list and start putting this and other ideas to the test. It can all be done with the Research Wizard stock picking and backtesting software. 

The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out.

Click here to sign up for a free trial of the Research Wizard today.

Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.

Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks’ portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance