This week, Zacks Chief Equity Strategist and Economist John Blank, PhD discusses:

• Winning portfolios for 2025, built using his analyses of top stocks in four key sectors—Finance, Utilities, Transportation, Business Services.

• John uses a screening approach to find winners in these (and other) sectors based on three criteria to define top stocks: market capitalization; number of analysts following the stock; and largest percent change in F1 EPS estimate (the most important element used in assigning a Zacks Rank to stocks). In this week’s session, he evaluates 6-stock portfolios in each sector, built using each of the three definitions, to see which ones performed best.

• This analysis reveals that, depending on the stocks picked in each sector, it is possible to build portfolios with results that are quite varied—and can be substantially better. Throughout this analysis, John compares portfolios to “the Qs” (the stocks in the NASDAQ 100 Index) as a performance benchmark. Don’t miss this review of how this portfolio construction system performed for four key sectors in 2025!

The views of John Blank, PhD are not necessarily the views of Zacks Investment Research.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index.