Investors on the hunt for high-quality stocks that offer stable growth in earnings, low debt and a high return on equity have help from a Barclays screen that turned up nearly three dozen such names. All told, 33 stocks made the high-quality cut for Barclays, with a total of 11 industrial, 10 technology, six consumer discretionary, four health care and two consumer staples names. Every stock on the list is rated overweight by the British bank. MercadoLibre , the Latin American online retailer traded on the Nasdaq, turns up as one of six recommended consumer discretionary stocks, and the one with the greatest upside of them all (97% at the start of the week) relative to Barclays analysts’ price target. Its 2022 estimated return on equity stands at 32%. IDEXX Laboratories , a Nasdaq 100-listed pet health-care provider, is one of the four health-care stocks that made the Barclays cut. It’s also the one offering the highest potential upside in the group at 89%, and it has a 2022 ROE of 67%. Ferguson , a British-based plumbing and heating products maker whose primary listing moved in March to the New York Stock Exchange, is one of 11 industrial companies to emerge on Barclays’ screen — the most of any sector — and the one with the greatest upside to the bank’s price target, at 64%, with an estimated ROE of 41%. Pure Storage , an all-flash data storage hardware and software maker, has the highest potential return of the 10 technology stocks on Barclays’ list, at 62% and an ROE of 29%. Flooring retailer Floor & Decor is another consumer discretionary company that made the screen, with a potential upside of 53% and an ROE of 21%. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
