Episode summary
3 Strong Buy Stocks That Are Breaking Out in 2026
Zacks Market Edge
· · 39 min
Summary
The host focused on a narrow stock screen: Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys that are also sitting at 52-week highs. She said that combination is meant to surface companies where earnings estimate revisions are turning positive and the chart confirms momentum. The screen produced 32 names, with gold miners, industrial metals producers, and foreign banks standing out most clearly.
Her main point was that the strongest current setups are not where many investors would first look. Gold miners are benefiting from record gold prices, while copper, iron ore, and steel names are being lifted by resilient commodity demand and stronger guidance. A third surprise was a cluster of emerging-market banks, especially in Brazil, where estimates are rising and valuation is still reasonable by bank standards.
She highlighted three examples: Ares Mining, which has seen production guidance improve; BHP Group, which is benefiting from copper strength and higher production guidance; and Itaú Unibanco, whose earnings estimates have moved higher and whose stock has already had a strong year. Her broader argument was that screens can uncover hidden leadership better than simply asking an LLM for “hot stocks,” because the Zacks Rank ties the list to estimate revisions.
Key takeaways
- The host said 212 stocks currently carry a Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buy, and only 32 of them were also at 52-week highs.
- Gold miners dominated the screen because gold is at an all-time high, and the host expects more names to qualify as analysts raise estimates.
- BHP Group is benefiting from higher copper prices and increased production guidance, which helped push earnings estimates higher.
- Itaú Unibanco stood out as an emerging-market bank with rising estimates, a forward P/E near 10, and a strong one-year gain.
- The host argued that a Zacks-based screen can uncover names that an LLM prompt might miss because it starts from estimate revisions, not a user’s assumptions.
Notable quotes
“finding top stocks that are trading near their 52- week high. Basically, they're breaking out”
“The number one ranks, the strong buys are a pretty elite group. There's just 212 right now as I'm recording this on January 27th, 2026”
“No one should be surprised gold miners because the price of gold is high. Uh the earnings are rising”
“there were a lot of of foreign banks on this list. I bought a foreign bank for the value investor last year because it was dirt cheap”
“use the Zach's rank as much as you can as a tool that it is and combine it with some of these other tools”
How the episode opens
Stocks, bonds, ETFs, straight out of downtown Chicago. This is Zach's Market Edge. Welcome to Zach's Market Edge, the podcast about investing in your life.
I'm your host, Tracy Reinick, and this week I'm going solo to talk about a basic concept, finding top stocks that are trading near their 52- week high. Basically, they're breaking out. What are these top stocks?
They would be Zach's number one rank strong buys in our Zach's ranking system. Remember the Zach's rank is a shortterm recommendation just one to three months and it can change daily because it's based on earnings estimate revisions. So when a company goes and uh reports earnings, maybe they beat, they raise guidance, the analysts then have to raise their guidance to match what the company has said and they all go in and raise their earnings estimates.
That is picked up in the Zach's computer and then it runs a couple of other key things in the algorithm and then that's how the Zach's rank is determined. The number one ranks, the strong buys are a pretty elite group. There's just 212 right now as I'm recording this on January 27th, 2026.
And it usually is around 200 to 240 stocks, but normally in this range of the 212, 210 to 220 give or take. Now, it's going to change a lot when earning season continues to uh go on and um those estimates are changed on dozens and hundreds of companies. So, the ranks we're getting now are the beginning of earning season.
and any company that maybe pre-reported or was at a conference and had better things to say than the analysts thought and the analysts have gone in and raised those earnings estimates. Now, I also wanted to get stocks that were breaking out because I didn't want just the number ones.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- zacks rank
- buy ratings
- 52-week highs
- market breakouts
Watch the episode
Watch “3 Strong Buy Stocks That Are Breaking Out in 2026” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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