Zacks Earnings and Margins Strategy Highlights: American Financial Group, AAR Corp., Omega Healthcare and Thomas Nelson.

CHICAGO -- Earnings are the single most important metric for a company. Combine that with a healthy Net Profit Margin and you find a screen that has generated a cumulative return of +425% since January 2001. During the first half of 2005, this screen continued its winning ways with a +13.8% return. This screen is called the Earnings and Margins Profit Track strategy. Here are four stocks meeting this screen's exclusive criteria: American Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:AFG), AAR Corp. (NYSE:AIR), Omega Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:OHI) and Thomas Nelson, Inc. (NYSE:TNM). View the entire list of stocks for the Earnings and Margins Profit Track at http://at.zacks.com/?id=1858.

Here are four companies that meet the following Earnings and Margin Profit Track:

American Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:AFG) announced in mid-December an increase in its 2006 earnings guidance to between $3.80 and $4.15 per share from $3.70 and $4.00 per share. In late October, AFG delivered third-quarter earnings per share that were ahead of analysts' expectations by 26% and topped the prior year's result. The company will report financial results for the fourth quarter next week. AFG has a net margin of .10 and produced annual earnings growth of nearly 30% above the previous year.

AAR Corp. (NYSE:AIR) generated impressive earnings growth of 400% last year over the previous year, which is currently the highest increase in annual earnings growth on this Profit Track. This Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) company is a worldwide leader in supplying aftermarket products and services to the global aerospace/aviation industry. In late December, AIR posted fiscal second-quarter earnings of 22 cents per share, exceeding the consensus estimate by almost 5%.

Omega Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:OHI) recently issued its fourth-quarter report, noting that earnings surpassed last year's result for the fourth quarter. The company is a self-administered real estate investment trust, which invests in income-producing health care facilities. OHI experienced earnings growth of 268% for the most recently-completed year versus the prior year. This puts the company in second place for the highest increase in annual earnings growth on the current Profit Track. Omega Healthcare offers a net margin of .35.

Thomas Nelson, Inc. (NYSE:TNM), a publishing company, delivered annual earnings growth of 20% above the prior year. Thomas Nelson will release fiscal third-quarter results later this week. In early November, TNM announced fiscal second-quarter earnings that outpaced the consensus estimate by almost 10% and improved on the previous year's performance.

Discover all the current stocks currently on the Earnings and Margin Profit Track at: http://at.zacks.com/?id=1859.

About Profit Tracks

What is a "Profit Track"? Each Profit Track is a successful stock picking strategy with proven results through the Bear Market of 2001-2002 and the Bull run started in 2003. On Zacks.com we have created these nine unique screens to offer investors great strategies to potentially outperform the market in the years ahead. In 2004, the Upgrades and Revisions strategy was the top performing Profit Track with a return of +55.7% followed by the Low Price Stocks screen with a +54.8% return. To see all nine strategies along with philosophy, past performance, and current stocks, go to http://at.zacks.com/?id=1838.

All the Profit Track strategies were created and backtested using the Research Wizard software from Zacks Investment Research. If you like this screening strategy, but want to narrow down the list of stocks and even improve the performance, then you should start a free trial to this powerful stock picking tool. Learn more about the Research Wizard free trial offer and our new special report "Top 10 Stock Screening Strategies" at http://at.zacks.com/?id=1993.

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