Zacks.com featured highlights include Sterling, Leidos, Tenet Healthcare and Amazon

For Immediate ReleaseChicago, IL – November 14, 2024 – Stocks in this week’s article are Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. STRL, Leidos Holdings, Inc. LDOS, Tenet Healthcare Corp. THC and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.Pick These 4 Stocks with Solid Net Interest Coverage RatiosAn ill-informed investor can lose cash if he wagers on a stock only based on the numbers flashing on a real-time stock screen. A critical analysis of a company’s financial background is a must for a better investment decision, especially at a time when the stock market is juggling myriad issues.Often, investors evaluate a company’s performance by simply looking at its sales and earnings, which sometimes do not reveal the real picture. To be more precise, they do not tell whether a company’s fundamentals are sound enough to meet its financial obligations. Here, the coverage ratio comes into play — the higher the metric, the more efficient an enterprise will be in meeting its financial obligations.Sterling Infrastructure, Inc., Leidos Holdings, Inc., Tenet Healthcare Corp.  and Amazon.com, Inc. boast an impressive interest coverage ratio.Why Interest Coverage Ratio?The interest coverage ratio is used to determine how effectively a company can pay interest charges on its debt.Debt, which is crucial to financing operations for the majority of companies, comes at a cost called interest. Interest expense has a direct bearing on the profitability of a company. The company’s creditworthiness depends on how effectively it meets its interest obligations. Therefore, interest coverage ratio is one of the important criteria to factor in before making any investment decision.Interest Coverage Ratio = Earnings before Interest & Taxes (EBIT) divided by Interest Expense.Interest coverage ratio suggests how many times the interest could be paid from earnings and gauges the margin of safety a firm has for paying interest.An interest coverage ratio lower than 1 suggests that the company is unable to fulfill its interest obligations and could default on repaying debt. A company capable of generating earnings well above its interest expense can withstand financial hardships. One should also track the company’s past performance to determine whether the interest coverage ratio has improved or worsened over a period of time.The Winning StrategyApart from having an interest coverage ratio that is more than the industry average, adding a favorable Zacks Rank and a VGM Score of A or B to your search criteria should lead to better results.Here are four of the 18 stocks that qualified the screening:Sterling Infrastructure, which is engaged in e-infrastructure, transportation and building solutions, sports a Zacks Rank #1 and has a VGM Score of B. Sterling Infrastructure has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 21.5%, on average. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Sterling Infrastructure’s current financial year sales and EPS suggests growth of 9% and 33.3%, respectively, from a year ago. The stock has surged 185.9% in the past year.Leidos Holdings, which provides services and solutions in the defense, intelligence, civil and health markets in the United States and internationally, has a VGM Score of A and carries a Zacks Rank #1.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Leidos Holdings’ current financial year sales and EPS suggests growth of 6% and 33.6%, respectively, from a year ago. Leidos Holdings has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 29.9%, on average. The stock has risen 91.8% in the past year.Tenet Healthcare, a diversified healthcare services company in the United States, sports a Zacks Rank #1 and has a VGM Score of A.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Tenet Healthcare’s current financial year sales and EPS suggests growth of 1% and 63.2%, respectively, from a year ago. THC has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 59.9%, on average. The stock has skyrocketed 180.9% in the past year.Amazon, a multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming and artificial intelligence, has a Zacks Rank #2 and a VGM Score of B.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Amazon’s current financial year sales and EPS suggests growth of 10.8% and 78.3%, respectively, from the year-ago period’s levels. AMZN has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 25.9%, on average. The stock has surged 43.3% in the past year.You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and backtest them first before taking the investment plunge.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 to 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/2369870/pick-these-4-stocks-with-solid-interest-coverage-ratioZacks 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/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.Free: 5 Stocks to Buy As Infrastructure Spending SoarsTrillions of dollars in Federal funds have been earmarked to repair and upgrade America’s infrastructure. In addition to roads and bridges, this flood of cash will pour into AI data centers, renewable energy sources and more.In, you’ll discover 5 surprising stocks positioned to profit the most from the spending spree that’s just getting started in this space.Download How to Profit from the Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Boom absolutely free today.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 reportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks