5 Stocks With Recent Price Strength to Enhance Your Portfolio Returns

The astonishing rally of the artificial intelligence (AI) trade has been showing no signs of abatement even after more than three and a half years. In 2026, the AI trade maintained its northward journey albeit at a slow pace. This year, several non-AI stocks are flourishing along with AI-powered stocks. 

As a result, several stocks have shown price strength. We have primarily targeted stocks that have recently been on a bull run. These stocks have a high chance of carrying the momentum forward.

Five such stocks are — EuroDry Ltd. EDRY, OptimumBank Holdings Inc. OPHC, Forum Energy Technologies Inc. FET, Anika Therapeutics Inc. ANIK and National Energy Services Reunited Corp. NESR.

If a stock is continuously witnessing an uptrend, there must be a solid reason or it would have probably crashed. So, looking at stocks capable of beating the benchmark that they have set for themselves seems rational.

However, recent price strength alone cannot create magic. Therefore, other relevant parameters are needed to create a successful investment strategy.

Here’s how you should create the screen to shortlist the current as well as the potential winners.

Screening Parameters:

Percentage Change in Price (4 Weeks) greater than zero: This criterion shows that the stock has moved higher in the last four weeks. 

Percentage Change Price (12 Weeks) greater than 10: This indicates that the stock has seen momentum over the last three months. This lowers the risk of choosing stocks that may have drawn attention due to the overwhelming performance of the overall market in a very short period. 

Zacks Rank 1: No matter whether market conditions are good or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) have a proven history of outperformance. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Average Broker Rating 1: This indicates that brokers are also highly hopeful about the stock’s future performance. 

Current Price greater than 5: The stocks must all be trading at a minimum of $5.

Current Price/ 52-Week High-Low Range more than 85%: This criterion filters stocks that are trading near their respective 52-week highs. It indicates that these are strong enough in terms of price.

Just these few criteria narrowed down the search from over 7,700 stocks to 15.

Let’s discuss five out of those 15 stocks here:

EuroDry is an owner and operator of drybulk vessels and provider of seaborne transportation for drybulk cargoes. EDRY owns and operates drybulk carriers that transport major bulks, such as iron ore, coal, and grains, and minor bulks, including bauxite, phosphate, and fertilizers.

The stock price of EDRY has soared 85.7% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 49.1% over the last 30 days.

OptimumBank offers real estate lending and retail banking products to individuals and businesses in Broward, Dade and Palm Beach Counties. OPHC provides various consumer and commercial banking services to individuals and businesses.

OPHC also offers multi-family real estate, residential and commercial real estate, land and construction loans, commercial loans and consumer loans for various purposes and deposit account collateralized loans. 

The stock price of OPHC has jumped 66.9% over the past four weeks. The company has expected earnings growth of 39.4% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 16.5% over the last 30 days.

Forum Energy is a global oilfield products company, serving the subsea, drilling, completion, production and infrastructure sectors of the oil and natural gas industry. FET designs and manufactures products, and engages in aftermarket services, parts supply and related services that complement its product offering. 

The stock price of Forum Energy has surged 56.2% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 29.1% over the last seven days.

Anika Therapeutics is a global, integrated orthopedic medicines company. ANIK aims to improve the lives of patients with degenerative orthopedic diseases and traumatic conditions with clinically meaningful therapies along the continuum of care, from palliative pain management to regenerative cartilage repair. 

ANIK’s orthopedic medicine portfolio includes ORTHOVISC, MONOVISC, and CINGAL, which alleviate pain and restore joint function by replenishing depleted HA, and HYALOFAST, a solid HA-based scaffold to aid cartilage repair and regeneration.

The stock price of Anika Therapeutics has climbed 43.2% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved more than 100% over the last 30 days.

National Energy Services is one of the largest national oilfield services providers in the MENA and Asia Pacific regions. NESR helps its customers unlock the full potential of their reservoirs by providing production services such as cementing, coiled tubing, filtration, completions, stimulation and fracturing, and nitrogen services. 

NESR also helps its customers to access the reservoirs in a smarter and faster manner by providing drilling and evaluation services like drilling downhole tools, directional drilling, fishing tools, testing services, wireline, slickline, fluids and rig services.

The stock price of NESR has rallied 29.6% in the past four weeks. It has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 4.6% over the last 30 days.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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