A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after the second quarter (2025) earnings season got off to a strong start. Quarterly earnings reports released during the week exceeded Wall Street's expectations, fueling investor confidence. Around 50 S&P 500 components reported, with 88% of those exceeding analysts' expectations, FactSet data revealed.
Stocks that outperform the market usually share key traits such as rising sales, expanding margins, and increasing returns on capital.
The select few that can do all three for many years are often the ones that make you life-changing money.
Investors looking for hidden gems should keep an eye on small-cap stocks because they’re frequently overlooked by Wall Street.
Many opportunities exist in this part of the market, but it is also a high-risk, high-reward environment due to the lack of reliable analyst price targets.
PARSONS CORP (NYSE:PSN) meets key quality investing criteria with high ROIC, strong EBIT growth, and solid cash flow conversion. A premium valuation may be justified by its niche in defense and infrastructure.
A stock with low volatility can be reassuring, but it doesn’t always mean strong long-term performance.
Investors who prioritize stability may miss out on higher-reward opportunities elsewhere.
Growth is oxygen.
But when it evaporates, the consequences can be severe - ask anyone who bought Cisco in the Dot-Com Bubble or newer investors who lived through the 2020 to 2022 COVID cycle.
Quarterly earnings results are a good time to check in on a company’s progress, especially compared to its peers in the same sector. Today we are looking at Parsons (NYSE:PSN) and the best and worst performers in the defense contractors industry.
A company that generates cash isn’t automatically a winner.
Some businesses stockpile cash but fail to reinvest wisely, limiting their ability to expand.
What a brutal six months it’s been for Parsons. The stock has dropped 28.9% and now trades at $68, rattling many shareholders. This might have investors contemplating their next move.
Whether you see them or not, industrials businesses play a crucial part in our daily activities. Still, their generally high capital requirements expose them to the ups and downs of economic cycles, and the market seems to be baking in a prolonged downturn
as the industry has shed 12.1% over the past six months. This performance was worse than the S&P 500’s 2.4% fall.
Trump announced economic deals worth over $243.5 billion between the two countries, including a historic sale of Boeing aircraft and GE Aerospace engines to Qatar Airways.
Infrastructure and defense services provider Parsons (NYSE:PSN) missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2025 as sales only rose 1.2% year on year to $1.55 billion. On the other hand, the company’s full-year revenue guidance of $7.25 billion at the midpoint came in 1.3% above analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.78 per share was 5.1% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
Stability is great, but low-volatility stocks may struggle to deliver market-beating returns over time as they sometimes underperform during bull markets.
