25 Momentum Stocks Breaking Out on Friday

Each week I publish stocks to watch for the upcoming week as potential momentum trades. The stocks below all have a 50k minimum average daily share volume and traded at a 52-week high on strong volume, with a minimum of two times relative volume on Friday, April 29. In addition, stocks were required to close Friday higher than the open price.

Last week's list of 69 stocks returned an average of -2.67& versus -1.63% for SPY. Purchasing the entire list of stocks may not be feasible for individual investors. However, with this list we can identify stocks with high price momentum that may be viable short to intermediate term trading candidates, and, in some cases, long-term investments.

This week we have 25 stocks and ETFs qualifying for the top momentum securities. This tells us that positive price momentum has waned in the equity market. There is also a variety of industries on the list. However, we can sort the list based on the closing price change to identify some stocks with the highest price momentum headed into the weekend.

Two stocks on the list which finished the week and day strongly were PROS Holdings (PRO), which provides pricing and margin optimization software worldwide, and PriceSmart (PSMT), which owns and operates warehouse clubs in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

PRO jumped over 17% after reporting earnings after the close on Thursday. According to the company's release "Total revenue for the first quarter of 2011 was $21.4 million, which exceeded the high end of the Company's revenue guidance for the quarter, and increased 24% from the first quarter of 2010." In addition, the company guided revenues of $23.3-$23.7 million for the second quarter.  Two analysist covering the stock upgraded the company after earnings to "buy" and "outperform", with $18-$19 price targets.

On Friday PSMT announced via press release " April 2011 net sales increased 37.0% to $141.7 million from $103.4 million in April a year earlier. For the eight months ended April 30, 2011, net sales increased 23.4% to $1,098.5 million from $890.3 million for the eight months ended April 30, 2010."  The company has grown sales and earnings the past year and 5 years at a double digit rates and is projected to continue double digit growth rates this year and next. It currently trades at a 19.42 forward P/E and has a low debt/equity ratio of .18.

From a technical perspective, PSMT has no overhead resistance.  If the company can keep sales and earning growth momentum, then $40 could serve as a solid support level for further advances.  Given the company's history or earnings and sales growth and technical breakout, it is a stock worth watching.

Data and Chart Source: Finviz

The entire list of 25 stocks as well as the current performance can be viewed on the right hand side of Scott's Investments.

Ticker	Company	Industry	Trend	52-Week High	Relative Volume	Price
PRO	PROS Holdings, Inc.	Application Software	Here	9.66%	2.41	17.37
LXU	LSB Industries Inc.	General Building Materials	Here	5.86%	5.59	43.52
CCIX	Coleman Cable, Inc.	Industrial Electrical Equipment	Here	8.80%	3.37	11.37
SAPE	Sapient Corp.	Business Software & Services	Here	2.60%	6.47	13.79
IMMR	Immersion Corporation	Computer Peripherals	Here	2.17%	6.23	8.02
WCG	WellCare Health Plans, Inc.	Health Care Plans	Here	5.81%	2.97	47.33
PSMT	PriceSmart Inc.	Discount, Variety Stores	Here	6.58%	2.07	44.86
OFIX	Orthofix International NV	Medical Appliances & Equipment	Here	4.69%	3.57	36.62
MHK	Mohawk Industries Inc.	Textile Industrial	Here	4.49%	2.83	67.48
HOTT	Hot Topic Inc.	Apparel Stores	Here	5.88%	3.21	7.74
UFS	Domtar Corporation	Paper & Paper Products	Here	3.00%	3.47	99.81
SIRI	SIRIUS XM Radio Inc.	Broadcasting - Radio	Here	2.30%	2.78	2.22
KLIC	Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc.	Semiconductor Equipment & Materials	Here	3.10%	3.14	11.98
CPA	Copa Holdings SA	Regional Airlines	Here	3.77%	2.84	64.48
ONXX	Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.	Biotechnology	Here	2.23%	3.41	39.81
SFUN	SouFun Holdings Ltd.	Internet Information Providers	Here	2.42%	2.15	26.2
WMG	Warner Music Group Corp.	Entertainment - Diversified	Here	0.37%	48.93	8.18
GPK	Graphic Packaging Holding Company	Packaging & Containers	Here	0.53%	2.63	5.69
DPZ	Domino's Pizza, Inc.	Restaurants	Here	2.38%	2.04	21.94
VRSN	VeriSign Inc.	Application Software	Here	2.21%	2.33	35.57
GTXI	GTX Inc.	Biotechnology	Here	0.37%	2.36	5.4
OXM	Oxford Industries Inc.	Textile - Apparel Clothing	Here	0.78%	2.01	36.18
RDNT	RadNet, Inc.	Medical Laboratories & Research	Here	0.75%	2.15	4.03
RAH	Ralcorp Holdings Inc.	Processed & Packaged Goods	Here	-0.25%	2.58	90.34
VCIT	Vanguard Interm-Tm Corp Bd Idx ETF	Exchange Traded Fund	Here	-0.02%	2.24	80.87