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It doesn't matter your age or experience: taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals for all investors. Luckily, Zacks Premium offers several different ways to do both.

Featuring daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank, full access to the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research reports, and Premium stock screens, the research service can help you become a smarter, more self-assured investor.

Zacks Premium includes access to the Zacks Style Scores as well.

What are the Zacks Style Scores?

The Zacks Style Scores is a unique set of guidelines that rates stocks based on three popular investing types, and were developed as complementary indicators for the Zacks Rank. This combination helps investors choose securities with the highest chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.

Each stock is given an alphabetic rating of A, B, C, D or F based on their value, growth, and momentum qualities. With this system, an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on, meaning the better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform.

The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:

Value Score

For value investors, it's all about finding good stocks at good prices, and discovering which companies are trading under their true value before the broader market catches on. The Value Style Score utilizes ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and a host of other multiples to help pick out the most attractive and discounted stocks.

Growth Score

While good value is important, growth investors are more focused on a company's financial strength and health, and its future outlook. The Growth Style Score takes projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow into account to uncover stocks that will see long-term, sustainable growth.

Momentum Score

Momentum trading is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook, and these investors live by the saying "the trend is your friend." The Momentum Style Score can pinpoint good times to build a position in a stock, using factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates.

VGM Score

What if you like to use all three types of investing? The VGM Score is a combination of all Style Scores, making it one of the most comprehensive indicators to use with the Zacks Rank. It rates each stock on their combined weighted styles, which helps narrow down the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum.

How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank

The Zacks Rank, which is a proprietary stock-rating model, employs earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to make building a winning portfolio easier.

Investors can count on the Zacks Rank's success, with #1 (Strong Buy) stocks producing an unmatched +25.41% average annual return since 1988, more than double the S&P 500's performance. But the model rates a large number of stocks, and there are over 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, plus another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.

This totals more than 800 top-rated stocks, and it can be overwhelming to try and pick the best stocks for you and your portfolio.

That's where the Style Scores come in.

To maximize your returns, you want to buy stocks with the highest probability of success. This means picking stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B. If you find yourself looking at stocks with a #3 (Hold) rank, make sure they have Scores of A or B as well to ensure as much upside potential as possible.

The direction of a stock's earnings estimate revisions should always be a key factor when choosing which stocks to buy, since the Scores were created to work together with the Zacks Rank.

Here's an example: a stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, even one with Style Scores of A and B, still has a downward-trending earnings outlook, and a bigger chance its share price will decrease too.

Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.

Stock to Watch: Generac Holdings (GNRC)

Headquartered in Waukesha, WI, and founded in 1959, Generac Holdings Inc is a leading manufacturer of backup and prime power generation systems for residential and C&I applications, solar + battery storage solutions, advanced power grid software platforms and services, energy management devices and controls along with engine and battery-powered tools and equipment.

GNRC is a #2 (Buy) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of B.

Momentum investors should take note of this Industrial Products stock. GNRC has a Momentum Style Score of B, and shares are up 10.5% over the past four weeks.

For fiscal 2024, nine analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.33 to $6.80 per share. GNRC boasts an average earnings surprise of 10.8%.

With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Momentum and VGM Style Scores, GNRC should be on investors' short list.

Zacks Investment Research

Investors interested in Industrial Products stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Generac Holdings (GNRC) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Generac Holdings is one of 213 companies in the Industrial Products group. The Industrial Products group currently sits at #12 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. Generac Holdings is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GNRC's full-year earnings has moved 4.9% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the most recent data, GNRC has returned 42% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Industrial Products group have gained about 20.4% on average. As we can see, Generac Holdings is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Industrial Products stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Kadant (KAI). The stock is up 45.7% year-to-date.

For Kadant, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Generac Holdings belongs to the Manufacturing - General Industrial industry, a group that includes 42 individual companies and currently sits at #135 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 18.5% so far this year, so GNRC is performing better in this area. Kadant is also part of the same industry.

Investors with an interest in Industrial Products stocks should continue to track Generac Holdings and Kadant. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.

Zacks Investment Research

Wisconsin-based Generac Holdings Inc. designs, manufactures and distributes various energy technology products and solutions. Valued at a market cap of $10.7 billion, the company’s product includes engines, alternators, transfer switches, mobile heaters, water pumps, energy monitoring devices, and other components of outdoor power equipment for residential and commercial use.

Shares of this power company have significantly outpaced the broader market over the past 52 weeks. GNRC has soared 62.9% over this time frame, while the broader S&P 500 Index ($SPX) has gained 31.1%. Moreover, on a YTD basis, the stock is up 42%, compared to the SPX’s 24.7% gain.

Narrowing the focus, GNRC’s outperformance looks even more pronounced when compared to the Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund’s 32.9% gain over the past 52 weeks and 23.4% return on a YTD basis.