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Get Four
|  | FEBRUARY 25, 2005
 STOCK SCREENS By Numer de Guia Looking for Overachievers S&P hunts down outfits that have earnings far surpassing analysts' estimates -- and stocks that still have room to rise It looks like the fourth quarter provided some upside surprises in corporate earnings. Some 64% of the 437 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index that had posted earnings through Feb. 18 topped analysts' expectations, according to Thomson First Call. All well and good. But a company can beat estimates by a small margin -- which doesn't necessarily mean that its business trends and profit growth are strong. On the flip side, an outfit can beat the average forecast overwhelmingly -- often indicating that the company's expansion is far more robust than analysts originally thought. BRIGHT FUTURE. What are some of the most attractive names among those that blew past the Street's fourth-quarter expectations? That's what we tried to uncover in this week's screen. We looked for companies that beat analysts' EPS forecasts by the statistical equivalent of a country mile. Their latest quarterly earnings had to be at least +3.0 standard deviations away from the analysts' average estimates for the same period, based on data provided by I/B/E/S. In order to make sure that we had a solid number on Street estimates, we only considered those followed by 20 or more analysts. And finally, to make sure that the stocks on the list didn't just have their best days behind them and held out prospects for capital appreciation, we screened for those issues S&P equity analysts ranked 4 STARS (buy) or 5 STARS (strong buy). Stocks with those rankings are expected to outperform the overall market over the next 6 to 12 months. When our screen was completed, these 30 names popped up:
 De Guia is an analyst for Standard & Poor's Portfolio Services All of the views expressed in this research report accurately reflect the research analyst's personal views regarding any and all of the subject securities or issuers. No part of analyst compensation was, is or will be, directly or indirectly related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this research report. Standard & Poor's Regulatory Disclosure Any advice, analysis, or recommendations contained in articles labeled "Insight from Standard & Poor's" reflect the views of Standard & Poor's, which operates separately from and independently of BusinessWeek Online. It is possible that BWOL may from time to time publish information that is not consistent with advice, analysis, or recommendations that are published by Standard & Poor's. Standard & Poor's and BusinessWeek Online are each units of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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