Zacks.com featured highlights include Sprouts Farmers Market, Cencora and American Express

For Immediate ReleaseChicago, IL – March 3, 2025 – Stocks in this week’s article are — Sprouts Farmers Market SFM, Cencora, Inc. COR and American Express AXP.Scoop Up These 3 GARP Stocks to Receive Handsome ReturnsIf you are looking for a profitable portfolio of stocks offering the best of 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 value and growth investing. Sprouts Farmers Market, Cencora, Inc.  and American Express are some GARP stocks that hold promise.GARP Metrics: Mix of Growth & Value MetricsThe GARP strategy seeks to offer an ideal investment by utilizing the best features of 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 MetricsA 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 metric that 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. Stocks with positive cash flows find precedence under the GARP plan.Value MetricsGARP investing prioritizes the popular value metrics — the price-to-earnings (P/E) and price-to-book (P/B) ratios. Though this investing style picks stocks with higher P/E ratios than 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.Here are the three stocks that made it through the screening process:Sprouts Farmers Market, which operates in a highly fragmented grocery store industry, has a unique model that features fresh produce, a foods section and a vitamin department focused on overall wellness. Moreover, the company has been diversifying its offerings to meet the changing preferences of consumers, who are looking for more health and wellness products.The company’s focus on product innovation, emphasis on e-commerce, expansion of private label offerings and targeted marketing with everyday great pricing bodes well. It has been lowering operational complexity, optimizing production, improving in-stock position and updating to smaller format stores. These efforts helped post better-than-expected fourth-quarter 2024 results, wherein both the top and the bottom lines grew year over year. Buoyed by the performance, Sprouts Farmers provided a decent 2025 view. The company expects net sales to rise between 10.5% and 12.5%, with comps anticipated to increase in the range of 4.5-6.5%. SFM’s strong sales growth, margin expansion and disciplined financial management position it as a compelling investment opportunity.This Zacks Rank #1 stock has surged 128.8% in the past year. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 15.12%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SFM’s 2025 earnings has moved north by 8.3% to $4.56 per share over the past 30 days. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.Cencora is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical service companies. It focuses on providing drug distribution and related services to reduce healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes. The company is well-positioned to deliver long-term sustainable growth due to its diverse and inclusive teams.This Zacks Rank #2 company is an ideal partner for manufacturers looking to launch products. This is due to its extensive worldwide distribution network and global platform of commercialization services. Thanks to its growing presence in the pharmaceutical industry, Cencora can establish partnerships with pharmaceutical companies at an early stage of product development and market itself as an integrated partner capable of assisting in the successful commercialization of its products (in addition to providing logistics and distribution services). These factors are likely to have favored the stock’s growth.Cencora has risen 5.7% in the past year. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 4.94%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for COR’s fiscal 2025 earnings has moved north by 1.3% to $15.29 per share over the past 30 days.American Express Co. is a diversified financial services company offering charge and credit payment card products and travel-related services worldwide. Its growth initiatives, like launching new products, reaching new agreements and forging alliances, are boosting its revenues.Consumer spending on travel and entertainment, which carries higher margins for AmEx, is advancing well. Its focus on millennials and Gen-Z consumers who exhibit strong dining preferences positions the company for long-term growth. Its solid cash-generation abilities enable the pursuit of business investments, share buybacks and dividend payments.AmEx has rallied 34.1% in the past year. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 6.89%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AXP’s 2025 earnings has remained steady at $15.32 per share over the past 30 days.Get the remaining stocks on the list and start testing this and other ideas. It can all be done with the Research Wizard stock picking and back-testing 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.For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit Zacks.com at: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/2423430/scoop-up-these-3-garp-stocks-to-receive-handsome-returnsZacks 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.Contact: Jim GiaquintoCompany: Zacks.comPhone: 312-265-9268Email: pr@zacks.comVisit: https://www.zacks.com/Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.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.Just Released: Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2025Hurry – you can still get in early on our 10 top tickers for 2025. Handpicked by Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian, this portfolio has been stunningly and consistently successful. From inception in 2012 through November, 2024, the Zacks Top 10 Stocks gained +2,112.6%, more than QUADRUPLING the S&P 500’s +475.6%. Sheraz has combed through 4,400 companies covered by the Zacks Rank and handpicked the best 10 to buy and hold in 2025. You can still be among the first to see these just-released stocks with enormous potential. See New Top 10 Stocks >>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 American Express Company (AXP): Free Stock Analysis Report Cencora, Inc. (COR): Free Stock Analysis Report Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (SFM): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks