Add These 4 GARP Stocks to Your Portfolio for Maximum Returns

If you are looking for a profitable portfolio of stocks offering the best value and growth investing, try the growth at a reasonable price or GARP strategy.

The strategy helps investors gain exposure to undervalued stocks with impressive prospects. Unlike a blend strategy, a portfolio that uses GARP investing is expected to include stocks that offer the best of both value and growth investing. W.W. Grainger GWW, National Fuel Gas Company NFG, Automatic Data Processing ADP and James Hardie Industries JHX are some GARP stocks that hold promise.

GARP Metrics — Mix of Growth & Value Metrics

The GARP strategy seeks to offer an ideal investment by utilizing the best features of both value and growth investing. Investors adopting the GARP approach prefer buying stocks priced below the market or any reasonable target determined by fundamental analysis. These stocks also have solid prospects in terms of cash flow, revenues, earnings per share (EPS) and so on.

Growth Metrics

Both a strong earnings growth history and impressive earnings prospects are the main concepts that GARP investors borrow from the growth investing strategy. However, instead of super-normal growth rates, pursuing stocks with a more stable and reasonable growth rate is a tactic of GARP investors. Hence, growth rates between 10% and 20% are considered ideal under the GARP strategy.

Another growth metric that both growth and GARP investors consider is the return on equity (ROE). GARP investors look for a strong and higher ROE than the industry average to identify superior stocks. Moreover, stocks with positive cash flows find precedence under the GARP plan.

Value Metrics

GARP investing prioritizes the popular value metrics — the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio and the price-to-book (P/B) ratio. Though this investing style picks stocks with higher P/E ratios compared to value investors, it avoids companies with extremely high P/E ratios.

Using the GARP principle, we ran a screen to identify stocks that should offer solid returns in the near term.

Screening Parameters

Along with the criteria discussed in the above section, we have considered a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy).

Last 5-year EPS & projected 3-5-year EPS growth rates between 10% and 20% (Strong EPS growth history and prospects ensure improving business.)

ROE (over the past 12 months) greater than the industry average (Higher ROE than the industry average indicates superior stocks.)

P/E and P/B ratios less than the M-industry average (P/E and P/B ratios less than that of the industry indicate that the stocks are undervalued.)

Here are four stocks that made it through the screen:

W.W. Grainger is a broad line, business-to-business distributor of maintenance, repair, and operating products and services, primarily in North America, Japan and the U.K. The company currently sports a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

W.W. Grainger has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 10.1%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for W.W. Grainger’s 2022 earnings has moved 4% north to $29.18 per share over the past 30 days.

National Fuel Gas Company is an integrated energy company with natural gas assets located in the prolific Appalachian basin and oil-producing assets in California. NFG currently flaunts a Zacks Rank of 1.

National Fuel Gas has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 2.21%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NFG's fiscal 2023 earnings has moved 0.9% north to $7.44 per share over the past 30 days.

Automatic Data Processing provides cloud-based Human Capital Management technology solutions, including payroll, talent management, human resources and benefits administration, and time and attendance management. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Automatic Data Processing has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 3.46%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2023 earnings has moved 1% north to $8.13 per share over the past 30 days.

James Hardie Industries is a leading producer and marketer of high-performance fiber cement and fiber gypsum building solutions. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2.

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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.

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Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
W.W. Grainger, Inc. (GWW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
James Hardie Industries PLC. (JHX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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