Overweight quality stocks with positive EPS revision – MS

Morgan Stanley analysts listed quality stocks with positive EPS revisions and overweight rating, as they believe that the group is expected to perform well in the near-term.

“The labor data will be the most important factor in terms of how equities trade through year-end,” wrote Strategist Michael J. Wilson. “A drop in the unemployment rate and above consensus payroll data (without downward revisions) is likely the most risk-on signal for equities in the fourth quarter.”

He said that a drop in the unemployment rate can counter seasonal weakness in earnings revisions and election-related volatility, but a rise in the unemployment rate (above 4.3%) alongside weak payrolls (under 100,000) will cause risk-off price action.

The following stocks are members of the Russell 1000 (NYSEARCA:IWF), have positive one-month earnings revision, above-median quality composite score vs. their sector peers, and are rated overweight.

• Schlumberger Ltd (SLB)
• Baker Hughes Co. (BKR)
• NOV Inc. (NOV)
• Devon Energy (DVN)
• Cheniere Energy (LNG)
• The Sherwin-Williams (SHW)
• Linde Plc (LIN)
• Eastman Chemical Co. (EMN)
• Ball Corp. (BALL)
• Curtiss-Wright (CW)
• Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC)
• Trane Technologies (TT)
• Cummins Inc. (CMI)
• Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp. (WAB)
• TransUnion (TRU)
• Borg Warner (BWA)
• Hasbro (HAS)
• Skechers USA (SKX)
• Doordash Inc. (DASH)
• Amazon (AMZN)
• GAP Inc. (GAP)
• TJX Co. (TJX)
• Burlington Stores (BURL)
• Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS)
• Walmart Inc. (WMT)
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL)
• Procter & Gamble (PG)
• AbbVie Inc. (ABBV)
• Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN)
• Biogen Inc. (BIIB)
• Zoetis Inc. (ZTS)
• IQVIA Holdings Inc. (IQV)
• Avantor Inc. (AVTR)
• M&T Bank Corp. (MTB)
• Huntington Bancshares Inc. (HBAN)
• Bank of America (BAC)
• Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)
• East West Bancorp (EWBC)
• Ally Financial (ALLY)
• Progressive Corp. (PGR)
• Allstate (ALL)
• Arch Capital Group (ACGL)
• MetLife Inc. (MET)
• MongoDB Inc. (MDB)
• HubSpot Inc. (HUBS)
• Unity Software Inc. (U)
• Salesforce Inc. (CRM)
• ServiceNow (NOW)
• Fortinet Inc. (FTNT)
• Arista Networks (ANET)
• Apple Inc. (AAPL)
• Qorvo Inc. (QRVO)
• Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
• T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS)
• Trade Desk Inc. (TTD)
• Spotify Technology (SPOT)
• Netflix Inc. (NFLX)
• Warner Music Group (WMG)
• Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL)
• Meta Platforms (META)
• FirstEnergy Corp. (FE)
• Atmos Energy (ATO)
• Prologis Inc. (PLD)
• Welltower Inc. (WELL)
• Agree Realty (ADC)
• Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. (GLPI)