Zacks.com featured expert Kevin Matras highlights: Arch Capital Group, Avnet and...

Zacks.com featured expert Kevin Matras highlights: Arch Capital Group, Avnet and Spartan Motors

CHICAGO--(Business Wire)--
Kevin Matras shows how to find great growth stocks at an excellent
value. Stocks in this week's article are Arch Capital Group (NASDAQ:
ACGL), Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) and Spartan Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ:
SPAR). 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:

This week's screen has something for Growth Investors and Value
Investors.

Growth Investors focus on companies with great earnings growth,
but that alone isn't good enough for many stock pickers any more. They
want good growth at reasonable prices (low P/E's).

And while Value Investors focus on low P/E stocks, too many are
low because they lack earnings power.

So instead, try combining the best of both worlds and focus on the
companies with the highest growth rates and the lowest P/E ratios.

The screen I'm running this week is as follows:

-- Companies with 5 Yr. Historical Growth Rates in the top 20
percentile of all companies. (Using a Uniform Rank of 1-99 (99
being the best growth rates), I screened for stocks ranked 80
or better.)

-- Companies that also happened to have the lowest P/E's - lower
than 80% of all other companies. (Using a Uniform Rank of 1-99
again (this time 99 having the lowest P/E's), I screened for
stocks ranked 80 or better.)

-- I then required those stocks to be trading at or above $5, ...
with average daily trading volumes of 100,000 shares or more.

-- And a Zacks #2 Rank or less. (Only 'buys' and 'strong buys'
allowed).

Here are three stocks from this week's list (6/17/08):

-0-
*T
ACGL Arch Capital Group.
AVT Avnet, Inc.
SPAR Spartan Motors, Inc.
*T

Incidentally, this screen backtested very well. While it wasn't
designed to be a trading strategy per se' (15-20 stocks on average is
a lot of stocks to trade every month for most investors), this
screening strategy beat the market every year for the last seven years
(2001 through 2007). (I ran a series of tests over the last six-year
time span, using a four-week rebalancing period. Each run was
rebalanced over a different set of four-week periods to eliminate
coincidence and verify robustness.)

In 2001, this screen showed an average annualized gross return of
42.6%. In 2002, it was 19.1%. In 2003, it was a whopping 93%. In 2004,
it came in at 40.4%. 2005 was up 11.9%. 2006 advanced 16.8%. In 2007
it was up 14.1%. And so far in 2008, (YTD through May), its average
compounded gross return is up over 7%.

This screen is an excellent way to find good growth companies that
also have low valuations.

Check it out for yourself and get the rest of the stocks on this
list. See where your stocks Rank out of all of the other stocks out
there, and test your own strategies. Find out what works and what
doesn't. It can all be done with the Research Wizard stock-picking and
backtesting program. Sign up now for your two-week free trial:
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. Learn more about it here http://at.zacks.com/?id=112.

About Zacks

Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which
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he could find patterns in stock market data that would lead to
superior investment results. Amongst his many accomplishments was the
formation of his proprietary stock picking system; the Zacks Rank,
which continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3 to 1 margin.
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clients of such affiliates.

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the
performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Disclaimer: Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Investors should always research companies and securities before
making any investments. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer
or solicitation to buy or sell any security.

Zacks.com
Jim Giaquinto
Phone: 312-265-9268
Email: pr@zacks.com
Visit: www.Zacks.com

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