Using the Weiss Ratings to Stay Ahead of the Pack

Any investor knows that the goal is to buy low and sell high. But, by the time a hot stock gets the media coverage, it’s too late. The fat cats on Wall Street have already collected their gains.

If you don’t have time to sit and monitor the market day after day, and hour by hour, you need another solution. Luckily for you, there’s the Weiss Rating stock screener.

The Weiss Ratings have been around since 1971, and unlike other ratings agencies, Weiss has never — and will never — accept compensation from those that we rate. These ratings are based exclusively on publicly available data that is processed by a complex algorithm.

The Weiss Ratings covers stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, banks and insurers. If you’re worried about whether or not your bank or insurance company could be in danger of failing, you can check the Weiss Safety Rating for those institutions as well.

But I’m still looking for the best places to invest money in this uncertain time, so I’m going to look at the Weiss Investment Rating.

To find whether each stock is a buy, hold or sell, we analyze the latest daily data available. Combined with quarterly filings, these thousands of pieces of stock data are used to balance reward against the amount of risk and assign a rating.

The stock screener available on the Weiss Ratings website has so many choices that you can sort by. I use it every Thursday to give you the scoop on a group of stocks.

Today, I wanted to look at the “Buy”-rated stocks that had a ratings change in the past five days, or more specifically, an upgrade. Actually, I really wanted to see if there were any stocks that made the change from hold into the buy range.

There were 13 of these stocks that have moved from “Hold” to “Buy” within the last five days. Let’s take a look at a few …

First, we’ve got Penske Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: PAG, Rated “B-”). Penske had been holding a “Buy” rating at the end of last year all the way into March before it slid down to a hold. Now it’s back at a buy due to an increase in the ratings system’s total return index and valuation index. This was just one day after the company announced that total revenue for the most recent quarter increased by 63%.

As companies’ financials start to return back to normal, they will pop back up on the radar of analysts everywhere. We can see here that it only took one day for the model to see that and issue the higher rating.

That way you won’t miss out on maximizing your gains. Then at the first sign of downgrade, you can get out quickly enough to protect them.

Next up, we’ve got Quanta Services, Inc. (NYSE: PWR, Rated “B-”). Quanta Services was upgraded due to an increase in operating cash flow of 118% and earnings per share doubling. The company was rated as a “Buy” back in February, but no doubt the uncertainty this year played a role in the downgrade.

Quanta Services is a specialty contractor providing infrastructure solutions for the utility, pipeline, energy and communications industries. They can engineer, construct and maintain systems of any size and work with clients around the globe.

These types of projects aren’t going anywhere any time soon. In fact, the need for electricity and communications continues to grow every year. This might just be a stock you want to add to your portfolio.

Finally, we’ve got Alamos Gold Inc. (NYSE: AGI, Rated “B-”). This is the first time that Alamos has gotten a “Buy” rating since at least 2017. It’s upgrade to a “B-” from a “C+” at the end of October was due to a large increase in the valuation index, growth index and efficiency index. The company saw net income increase 480% and earnings per share increase from 2.9 cents to 17 cents.

Alamos is a Canadian-based company that currently operates mines in Canada and Mexico. The company also has development projects in those countries, as well as the U.S. and Turkey.

In a zero-interest rate landscape, people turn to gold. We’ve seen gold hold above $1,800 for the past three months now. And the real winners here are going to be producers. They’ve worked to get that shiny metal out of the ground for as low cost as they can.

If you’re looking to add that yellow metal to your portfolio, Alamos is looking good. Plus, the company has paid a dividend for 11 consecutive years.

These are just three companies that met today’s screening criteria. But, by using the screener, I can focus my attention and not have to do a deep dive on every publicly listed stock.

The truth is, if you want to stay ahead of the pack, you’ll need to work smarter, not harder. No one person has enough hours in the day to track the entire market.

That’s why our team will continue to use our proprietary models. For instance, 49 stocks have had a ratings change in the past five days.

Best,

Kelly Green