Summertime is coming, when the living is easy. If you have air conditioning that is. It's no surprise that on Tuesday the IBD SmartSelect Composite Rating for HVAC specialist Comfort Systems USA rose from 94 to a near-best 96.
The heating, ventilation and air conditioning giant ranks No. 1 in its industry group and in the top 1% of all stocks, regardless of industry, for profit growth.
The revised 96 Composite score means the stock currently tops 96% of all other stocks in terms of key performance metrics and technical strength. The best stocks tend to have a 95 or better grade as they begin to launch a significant move, something to keep that in mind when looking for the best stocks to buy and watch.
On the company's Q1 earnings news release last Thursday, CEO Brian Lane said, "We are reporting earnings per share that exceed every past quarter, a remarkable accomplishment given that the first quarter is historically our seasonally weakest period."
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Comfort Systems' Other Ratings Very Cool
Comfort Systems boasts a flock of other top ratings including the aforementioned best-possible 99 EPS Rating. It also holds a best-possible A SMR Rating (sales + profit margins + return on equity), And its B- Accumulation/Distribution Rating indicates big funds are buying more shares of the Houston-based company's stock than selling.
Comfort Systems traded at 27.54 in mid-May, 2020. In the last five years its stock has risen more than 1,300% to close at 397.54 Tuesday, up for the day. Although it's not clear yet, it could be forming the right side of a cup base.
Tops In Its Industry Group
In Q1, the company posted 67% earnings growth, to $4.50 per share. That means it's now posted two straight quarters of rising EPS growth. Revenue grew 19% to $1.83 billion, down from 38% growth in the prior quarter. It's reported strong double-digit earnings and revenue growth going back at least to the June-ended quarter of 2023.
Comfort Systems USA earns the No. 1 rank among its peers in the 14-stock Building-A/C & Heating Products industry group. Limbach Holdings and Trane Technologies are also among the group's highest-rated stocks.
This article was created automatically with Stats Perform's Wordsmith software using data and article templates supplied by Investor's Business Daily. An IBD journalist may have edited the article.
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