According to its website, Oppenheimer is a "leading investment bank and full-service investment firm that provides financial services and advice to high net worth investors, individuals, businesses and institutions."
Indeed, Oppenheimer has some pull in the market through its equity ratings, which is why we examined a list of all the U.S. stocks rated "buy" by the firm. This is a highly bullish rating, so we can assume many smart minds from the firm spent time analyzing companies and feel convinced of the stocks' potential.
Encouraging accounts receivable trends
But we wanted more meat -- so we screened Oppenheimer's buy list for the names that have shown encouraging accounts receivable trends relative to sales.
The trend helps to gauge whether the quality of sales, not just the quantity, is increasing over time.
To be more specific, we screened for names with strong sales trends relative to accounts receivable and for increases in revenue that are outpacing increases in accounts receivable year over year, as well as receivables comprising a smaller portion of accounts receivable over the same time period.
These trends are positive because accounts receivable has not yet been received, and there is no guarantee it will be received in full, so the smaller the portion of revenue and current assets, the better.
Business section: Investing ideas
Below are the results of this screen. These stocks have positive sales trends relative to both revenue and current assets. They also have buy ratings from Oppenheimer.
Do you think these stocks are poised to move higher? (Click here to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)
1. Biogen Idec
2. EV Energy Partners
3. Fluidigm
4. MedAssets
5. Rex Energy: Operates as an independent oil and gas company in the Appalachian, Illinois, and Denver-Julesburg Basins. The company has a market cap of $515.78 million, most recent closing price at $9.99. On April 4, 2012, Oppenheimer had an outperform rating on the stock. Revenue grew by 62.8% during the most recent quarter ($31.68 million vs. $19.46 million y/y). Accounts receivable grew by -38.58% during the same time period ($17.72 million vs. $28.85 million y/y). Receivables, as a percentage of current assets, decreased from 30.81% to 26.88% during the most recent quarter (comparing three months ending Dec. 31, 2011 to three months ending Dec. 31, 2010).
6. Tempur-Pedic International
Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned above. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.