Best Growth Stocks to Buy for September 21st

Zacks highlighted Petco (WOOF), Five Below (FIVE), and Oscar Health (OSCR) as Zacks Rank #1 stocks after current-year EPS consensus estimates rose 26.3%, 15.2%, and 194.9%, respectively, over the past 60 days. Each trades at a PEG ratio below its industry benchmark: 0.89 for Petco versus 2.11, 0.90 for Five Below versus 2.11, and 0.37 for Oscar Health versus 0.94. The recommendations are supportive for the three individual equities but are unlikely to have broad market impact.

Analysis

The three names have materially different revision quality despite similar screening optics. WOOF is a high-operating-leverage turnaround: modest comp acceleration or gross-margin recovery can produce outsized EPS beats, but its debt load and exposure to discretionary hardgoods make the equity highly sensitive to any relapse in traffic or promotional intensity. FIVE has cleaner balance-sheet optionality, yet its earnings power is more exposed to tariff-driven import costs and low-income consumer elasticity; a margin-led estimate upgrade is less durable than a sustained transaction-growth recovery.

OSCR is the most actionable positive-revision setup because insurance earnings revisions can persist through the medical-cost and risk-adjustment reporting cycle, while the market may still value it as a volatile ACA disruptor rather than a scaled managed-care operator. The key issue is whether improved profitability reflects favorable prior-period development versus a repeatable lower medical-loss ratio; the latter supports multiple expansion over 6-18 months, while the former should fade after the next guidance cycle. Regulatory risk is asymmetric: adverse ACA subsidy, exchange-enrollment, or risk-adjustment developments would affect OSCR more than diversified incumbents UNH and CVS.

Near term, this is not sufficient evidence to chase any name solely on a quantitative rank or PEG comparison; both can be distorted by depressed earnings bases. Over the next 1-3 months, earnings calls and updated full-year guidance are the relevant catalysts. A consumer-spending slowdown would likely hurt FIVE and WOOF simultaneously, making a relative-value structure preferable to outright retail beta; OSCR provides the cleaner idiosyncratic catalyst if underwriting data continue to validate estimates.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Initiate a starter long OSCR only ahead of the next earnings/reporting catalyst if consensus revenue and adjusted EBITDA estimates continue rising; target a 15-25% upside over 3-6 months from underwriting validation, with a hard review if medical-loss ratio guidance worsens or exchange-policy risk materially changes.
• Express retail selectivity via long FIVE / short WOOF in equal dollar amounts over 1-3 months, but only if FIVE transaction trends remain positive while WOOF fails to show comp-sales improvement. The thesis is FIVE's superior balance-sheet flexibility versus WOOF's leveraged turnaround exposure; exit if WOOF raises full-year EBITDA/FCF guidance or FIVE guides gross margin lower on import costs.
• Do not add outright WOOF exposure without confirmation that EBITDA growth converts into free cash flow and net leverage declines. Treat the next quarterly debt, inventory, and promotional-spend disclosures as gating data; a miss on any of these metrics can produce downside disproportionate to an earnings-estimate revision.
• Monitor tariff announcements, consumer-confidence data, and lower-income spending indicators as risk triggers for FIVE. If import-cost pressure forces guidance reductions, rotate the retail long exposure toward cash-generative broadline retail rather than averaging down in FIVE.