Savvy investors are looking for good watchlist candidates while mostly keeping their powder dry as they await a strong market upswing. Here's a good watchlist candidate. Insurance giant American International Group continues to put up outstanding numbers. And on Wednesday its IBD Relative Strength (RS) Rating climbed to 71, up from 67 the day before.
American International A Leader In Profit Growth
AIG's new 71 RS Rating gets it closer to the benchmark that CAN SLIM investors want to see. Better yet, it sports an outstanding 95 EPS Rating, putting it the top 5% of companies for profit growth.
Over 100 years of market history reveals that the best stocks often have an 80 or better RS Rating in the early stages of their moves. See if American International Group can continue to show renewed price strength and hit that benchmark.
Among its other ratings, American International stock has an 88 Composite Rating, of a best-possible 99. Its D+ Accumulation/Distribution Rating indicates institutional investors such as mutual funds and ETFs are selling slightly more than they are buying American International shares.
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American International Group showed 24% earnings growth in the latest quarterly report, to $1.30 per share. Sales increased 9% to $15.8 billion. An increase of 9% might not seem like much, but it's rare for large companies to report that size growth.
American International stock performed well in the period following the Covid market crash in early 2020. Its stock rose more than 300% from a March 2020 intraday 16.07 low to a 65.73 high on April 21 this year. It's consolidated in sync with the bear market and traded just above 51 Wednesday afternoon. It's not currently near a potential buying area. See if the stock goes on to build a sound pattern, such as a cup-with-handle base, that could launch a new move.
Among Top 5 In Its Industry
The company earns the No. 4 rank among its peers in the Insurance-Diversified industry group. Loews and Assurant are also among the group's highest-rated stocks. The group ranks No. 40 on IBD's list of 197 industry groups. That puts the group in the top quartile, a bullish indicator.
When looking for the best stocks to buy and watch, be sure to pay attention to relative price strength.
This unique Relative Strength Rating tracks market leadership by using a 1 (worst) to 99 (best) score that identifies how a stock's price performance over the trailing 52 weeks stacks up against all the other stocks in our database.
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