Earnings are a measure of the money a company is making and are essentially revenues that the company generates after deducting the cost of production over a given period of time. Earnings acceleration, compared to earnings growth, works better when it comes to lifting the stock price. Studies have shown that a majority of successful stocks had seen an acceleration in earnings before an uptick in the stock price.

Earnings acceleration, therefore, is the incremental growth in earnings of a company. In other words, if the rate of a company’s quarter-over-quarter earnings growth increases within a stipulated frame of time, it can be referred to as earnings acceleration.

In the case of earnings growth, you pay for something that is already reflected in the stock price. But earnings acceleration helps spot stocks that haven’t caught the attention of investors yet, which once secured will invariably lead to a rally in the share price. This is because earnings acceleration considers both direction and magnitude of growth rates.

Increasing percentage of earnings growth means that the company is fundamentally sound and has been on the right track for a considerable period of time. Meanwhile, a sideways percentage of earnings growth indicates a period of consolidation or slowdown, while a decelerating percentage of earnings growth may at times drag prices down.

This is the reason why earnings acceleration should be viewed as a key metric for share price outperformance.

Screening Parameters

Let’s look at stocks for which the last two quarter-over-quarter percentage EPS growth rates exceed the growth rates of the previous periods. The projected quarter-over-quarter percentage EPS growth rates are also expected to be higher than the previous periods’ growth rates.

EPS % Projected Growth (Q1)/(Q0) greater than EPS % Growth (Q0)/(Q-1): The projected growth rate for the current quarter (Q1) over the completed quarter (Q0) has to be greater than the growth rate from the completed quarter (Q0) over one quarter ago (Q-1).

EPS % Growth (Q0)/(Q-1) greater than EPS % Growth (Q-1)/(Q-2): The growth rate for the completed quarter (Q0) over one quarter ago (Q-1) has to be greater than the growth rate from one quarter ago (Q-1) over two quarters ago (Q-2).

EPS % Growth (Q-1)/(Q-2) greater than EPS % Growth (Q-2)/(Q-3): The growth rate from one quarter ago (Q-1) over two quarters ago (Q-2) has to be greater than the growth rate from two quarters ago (Q-2) over three quarters ago (Q-3).

In addition to this, we have added the following parameters:

Current Price greater than or equal to $5: This screens out low-priced stocks.

Average 20-day volume greater than or equal to 50,000: High trading volume implies that the stocks have adequate liquidity.

The above criteria narrowed down the universe of around 7,735 stocks to only 16. Here are the top three stocks:

The New York Times Company (NYT - Free Report) operates as a diversified media company that comprises newspapers, Internet businesses, and other investments. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the next year is 31.8%. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Apple Inc. (AAPL - Free Report) designs, manufactures and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 22.6%. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #3.

Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. (TNDM - Free Report) designs, develops and markets products for people with insulin-dependent diabetes. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 23.8%. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Y