There are so many reasons to be excited about the stock market right now. With a new Administration comes fresh ideas and hope. That has manifested itself into a nice stock market rally on day 1. But, eventually, it’s stocks with the strongest earnings trends that beat the market over the long run. One way to uncover these stocks is by leaning on the power of the Zacks Rank. Stocks in the good graces of our Zacks Rank have the strongest earnings trends.

Today’s Bull of the Day counts itself among the few Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks. It’s Alcoa ( AA ). Alcoa is a global industry leader in bauxite, alumina and aluminum products. We have it in our Metal Products – Distribution industry which ranks in the Top 36% of our Zacks Industry Rank.

The reason for the favorable rank comes down to analyst estimate revisions. Over the course of the last sixty days, three analysts on Wall Street have increased their earnings estimates for the stock while four have followed suit for next year. The bullish sentiment has increased our Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year from 89 cents to 94 cents, while next year’s number is up from $2.98 to a staggering $4.27. That represents earnings growth of 354% over the current year numbers.

This is forecast to come along with some revenue growth as well. Current year revenue growth is forecast to come in 11.48% better than last year, with next year swelling another 9.4% to $12.87 billion. That means Alcoa is currently trading at 9.26x forward earnings and less than 1x sales at 0.93.

The Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Chart on Zacks tells the story of a stock that’s seen its earnings bottom out along with its stock price, and now it’s on the march higher. Year-over-year numbers continue to impress, with growth going out to 2026. Still, earnings are much lower than when the stock was trading over $90 per share.

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