Highly rated Grand Canyon Education recently formed a cup base, or cup with handle if you count a short downstroke at the end. It hasn't broken out but recent market weakness may be holding it back. It could be poised to rise when the market turns upward. On Wednesday, the IBD SmartSelect Composite Rating for Grand Canyon stock jumped to a near-best 96, up from 93 the day before.
Grand Canyon Stock Among Top 4%
The new score means Grand Canyon stock is outperforming 96% of all stocks in terms of the most important fundamental and technical stock-picking criteria.
Top-performing stocks tend to have a 95 or better grade as they kick off a significant move. The higher education company just joined that group of the best stocks to buy and watch.
Grand Canyon Education broke out earlier, but has fallen back below the prior 118.87 entry from a cup with handle. However, Grand Canyon stock is well above its 50-day average, an accomplishment when the rest of the market is in retreat. On Wednesday Grand Canyon stock closed at 116.29, up fractionally for the day.
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Among its other ratings, Grand Canyon sports a 90 Earnings Per Share Rating, which means its recent quarterly and longer-term annual earnings growth tops 90% of all stocks.
Big Money Funds Buying In
Its Accumulation/Distribution Rating of B- shows moderate buying by institutional investors over the last 13 weeks.
The Phoenix-based education company posted a 19% increase in earnings for Q2, to $1.01 per share. It has now posted accelerating EPS increases for four consecutive quarters. Sales grew 5% to $210.6 million, up from 2% in the prior report.
Grand Canyon stock holds the No. 6 rank among its peers in the Consumer Services-Education industry group. New Oriental Education, Laureate Education and Afya are among the top 5 highly rated stocks in the group.
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