Zacks.com Featured Expert Kevin Matras Highlights: Healthcare Services Group, NetEase.com and Torchmark Corporation.CHICAGO -- With Earnings Season in full swing, Kevin Matras goes over a screening strategy that targets consistently increasing earnings. Stocks in this week's article are Healthcare Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : HCSG HCSG Healthcare Services Group Incorporated (Bensalem, PA) ), NetEase.com Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES NTES Netease.com Inc (stock symbol) NTES National Technical Employment Services, Inc. ) and Torchmark Corp. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : TMK TMK The Mushroom Kingdom (Super Mario Bros video games) TMK Torchmark Corporation (McKinney, TX) TMK Tax Map Key (Hawaii) TMK To My Knowledge ). Click here for the full story exclusively on Zacks.com: http://at.zacks.com/?id=109 Screen of the Week written by Kevin Matras of Zacks Investment Research Zacks Investment Research A firm that compiles earnings estimates and brokerage firm investment recommendations for thousands of publicly traded firms. : With more than 2,000 companies reporting earnings in the coming weeks, here are two screens to help you take advantage of this busy season. In both good markets and bad, strong earnings are one of the most important factors that influence stock prices. But instead of just looking at the most recent quarter's earnings, try looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a pattern of increasing earnings. Sideways earnings eIgrowth' (even if it's good) or decelerating earnings can potentially signal a period of consolidation (or slowdown For articles with similar titles, see Slow Down (disambiguation). A slowdown is an industrial action in which employees perform their duties but seek to reduce productivity or efficiency in their performance of these duties. ), which in turn can flatten out Verb 1. flatten out - become flat or flatter; "The landscape flattened" flatten change form, change shape, deform - assume a different shape or form splat - flatten on impact; "The snowballs splatted on the trees" prices or send them lower. But steadily increasing earnings, in which each period improves upon the last, typically means the company is doing something right. This can often be the difference between good stocks and great stocks. The Parameters In this screen, I'm looking for each of last seven quarters of earnings to be greater than the previous quarter's earnings. (And each one of these stocks reports within the next two weeks.) The parameters are: Quarterly EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) A PostScript file format used to transfer a graphic image between applications and platforms. EPS files contain PostScript code as well as an optional preview image in TIFF, WMF, PICT or EPSI, the latter being an ASCII-only format. Q(0) greater than Quarterly EPS Q(-1) Quarterly EPS Q(-1) greater than Quarterly EPS Q(-2) Quarterly EPS Q(-2) greater than Quarterly EPS Q(-3) Quarterly EPS Q(-3) greater than Quarterly EPS Q(-4) Quarterly EPS Q(-4) greater than Quarterly EPS Q(-5) Quarterly EPS Q(-5) greater than Quarterly EPS Q(-6) Quarterly EPS Q(-6) greater than Quarterly EPS Q(-7) This screen is a great stock picker because it demands a consistency of excellent performance from a company over an eIextended' period of time. This strategy will typically find stocks with fantastic earnings consistency and a history of beating earnings expectations. Here are three stocks from this list (2/5/07): HCSG Healthcare Services Group, Inc. NTES NetEase.com Inc. TMK Torchmark Corp. Most screeners won't allow you to compare one period's earnings to another period, let alone the last seven quarters or more. But the Research Wizard will. Sign up now for your two-week free trial to the Research Wizard and take your stock screening to another level. And when you're done, backtest it to see if it works! And don't forget to check out the winning trading strategies In finance, a trading strategy (see also trading system) is a predefined set of rules to apply. Usually, this refers to a means used to replicate an option in order to give it an arbitrage free value in the sense that the cost of buying some financial assets to give the same that come loaded with the program. Know when to buy and when sell. It's all there. http://at.zacks.com/?id=111 Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. About Screen of the Week Zacks.com created the first and best screening system on the web earning the distinction as the "#1 site for screening stocks" by Money Magazine. But powerful screening tools is just the start. That is why Zacks created the Screen of the Week to highlight profitable stock picking strategies that investors can actively use. Each week, Zacks Profit from the Pros free email newsletter shares a new screening strategy. 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