Recent retail earnings show how serious rising inflation has made on corporate profits. Target and Walmart both cited higher costs and inventory woes for the hits they took in the previous quarter — which led to disappointing earnings. CNBC’s Brian Cornell, Target CEO, stated Wednesday that the cost of rising prices has increased so quickly over the last 13 weeks that he couldn’t predict some of them. While retailers are being hit hard, other businesses are also fighting to offset the rising costs. CNBC Pro reviewed data from FactSet to identify stocks Wall Street enjoys with growing margins and increasing profits. The stocks on this list have increased their margins at the most by at minimum 5 percentage points in the last quarter compared to the prior year. The stocks on the list are expected to improve earnings by at most 20% in 2019, and they have earn ratings of buy from nearly half of analysts that cover them. Source: CNBC Pro. FactSet Micron Technology, Broadcom and Broadcom top the list. They have the highest Wall Street analyst buy ratings. Micron saw the largest margin growth in the last year with a 20.8% increase. Broadcom is the top-ranked company with a 60.4% gross margin. EOG Resources’ 2022 earnings growth projections are the best. Due to the rise in oil prices, energy stocks have outperformed all other sectors throughout 2018. CNBC Pro’s top 100 list included EOG as the company with the largest margin growth over the last year. Arthur J. Gallaghe Insurance Company r boasts the highest gross margins of 92.4% and is expected to see its earnings grow by around 43% this fiscal year. United Rentals, Freeport McMoRan, and Freeport McMoRan also made it on the list.
