Bet on These 4 Top-Performing Liquid Stocks to Maximize Returns

Liquidity measures a company’s capability to meet short-term debt obligations. Investors seeking solid gains should consider adding stocks with strong liquidity, which supports business growth. Stocks with high liquidity levels have always been in demand, owing to their potential to provide maximum returns.

Investors may want to consider adding four top-ranked stocks — Columbia Sportswear Company COLM, Ciena Corporation CIEN, Etsy, Inc. ETSY and GigaCloud Technology Inc. GCT — to their portfolios to boost returns.

However, one should be careful while investing in a stock with high liquidity levels. High liquidity may also indicate that the company cannot competently utilize its assets.

Besides sufficient cash, an investor might also consider a company’s capital deployment abilities before investing. A balanced assessment of both liquidity and efficiency can help identify truly promising investment opportunities.

Measures to Identify Liquid Stocks

Current Ratio: It measures current assets relative to current liabilities. The ratio gauges a company’s potential to meet short and long-term debt obligations. A current ratio — the working capital ratio — below 1 indicates that the company has more liabilities than assets. A high current ratio does not always suggest that the company is in good financial shape. It may also indicate that the firm failed to utilize its assets significantly. Hence, a range of 1-3 is considered ideal.

Quick Ratio: Unlike the current ratio, the quick ratio — the “acid-test ratio” or “quick assets ratio” — indicates a company’s ability to pay short-term obligations. It considers inventory, excluding current assets, relative to current liabilities. A quick ratio of more than 1 is desirable, like the current ratio.

Cash Ratio: This is the most conservative ratio among the three, considering cash, cash equivalents and invested funds relative to current liabilities. It measures a company’s ability to meet existing debt obligations using the most liquid assets. Though a cash ratio of more than 1 may suggest sound financials, a higher number may indicate inefficiency in cash utilization.

A ratio greater than 1 is always desirable, but it may not always represent a company’s financial condition.

Screening Parameters

To pick the best of the lot, we have added asset utilization — a widely used measure of a company’s efficiency — as one of the screening criteria. Asset utilization is the ratio of total sales in the past 12 months to the last four-quarter average of total assets. Though this ratio varies across industries, companies with a ratio higher than that of their industry can be considered efficient.

We added our proprietary Growth Score to the screen to ensure these liquid and efficient stocks have solid growth potential.

Current Ratio, Quick Ratio, and Cash Ratio between 1 and 3: While liquidity ratios greater than 1 are desirable, significantly high ratios may indicate inefficiency.

Asset utilization is more significant than the industry average: A higher asset utilization than the industry average indicates a company’s efficiency.

Zacks Rank equal to #1 (Strong Buy): Only Strong Buy-rated stocks can get through. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Growth Score less than or equal to B: Back-tested results show that stocks with a Growth Score of A or B handily beat other stocks when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 (Buy).

These criteria have narrowed the universe of more than 7,700 stocks to only 12.

Here are four of the 12 stocks that qualified the screen:

Columbia Sportswear Company engages in the sourcing, marketing and distribution of outdoor and active lifestyle apparel, footwear, accessories and equipment in the United States and internationally. COLM is focusing on its ACCELERATE strategy to target younger consumers through revitalized branding and strong digital marketing.

For 2026, the company expects net sales to grow 1% to 3%, implying revenues of $3.43 billion to $3.5 billion, up from nearly $3.4 billion in 2025.

COLM’s fourth-quarter 2025 net sales came in at $1,070.2 million, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,037 million but declining 2% year over year. The decline was timing-related, as some Fall 2025 wholesale shipments were pulled forward into earlier periods. Continued momentum in the direct-to-consumer channel and solid performance in international markets were positives, while weaker demand was witnessed in the United States.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for COLM’s 2026 earnings is pegged at $3.46 per share, unchanged in the past seven days. The company has a Growth Score of B and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 25.2%, on average.

Ciena, headquartered in Hanover, MD, is a leading provider of optical networking equipment, software and services.

Driven by accelerating AI-led demand from cloud and service provider customers, Ciena’s fiscal first-quarter top line improved 33% year over year, the bottom line grew 111%, and order backlog was a record $7 million. Ciena continues to capitalize on WAN connectivity needs across subsea, long-haul, metro networks and DCI.

Better pricing, Hyper-Rail innovation and cost optimization are expected to boost gross margins, going ahead. For fiscal 2026, adjusted gross margins are projected at 43.5-44.5%. With the first half exceeding expectations and supply challenges being managed, Ciena now expects first and second-half gross margins to be roughly similar. It is managing supply conditions effectively and expanding capacity, but demand is expected to exceed supply for the next several quarters. For the second quarter, Ciena expects revenues of $1.5 billion (+/-$50 million).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CIEN’s fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $6.01 per share, unchanged in the past seven days. The company has a Growth Score of B and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 11.6%, on average.

Etsy is one of the prominent e-commerce platforms that operates a two-sided online marketplace connecting creative buyers and sellers across the globe. It also owned fashion resale marketplace Depop (to be acquired by eBay), which is now classified as a discontinued operation beginning in the first quarter of 2026.

For the first quarter of 2026, Etsy anticipates the take rate to be roughly 25.5%. Marketplace gross merchandise sales (GMS) is projected to be between $2.38 billion and $2.43 billion.

Etsy’s fourth-quarter revenues (excluding Reverb) were up 6.6% to $881.6 million, GMS was $3,592.6 million, up 2.4% year over year, excluding Reverb. The top-line performance was driven by momentum in consolidated on-site ads performance.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ETSY’s 2026 earnings is pegged at $3.50 per share, unchanged in the past seven days. The company has a Growth Score of B.

GigaCloud Technology provides end-to-end B2B e-commerce solutions for large-parcel merchandise worldwide. The company's B2B marketplace brings together suppliers and resellers (in Europe, Asia and North America) to facilitate cross-border transactions.

GCT’s marketplace continues to scale rapidly, with marketplace GMV rising 18% to nearly $1.6 billion in the trailing 12 months. 3P seller base increased 17% year over year, while GMV from this grew 23% over the past 12 months. In 2025, GCT added roughly 2,800 new buyers on a net basis, resulting in a total buyer base of 12,089. Europe remains the standout growth engine with 68% revenue growth (on an annual basis), helping offset U.S. macro softness.

The acquisition of New Classic will expand the channel and distribution footprint. GigaCloud expects first-quarter revenues to be between $330 million and $355 million.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GCT’s 2026 earnings is pegged at $4.10 per share, unchanged in the past seven days. The company has a Growth Score of A and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 64.5%, on average.

Why Haven't You Looked at Zacks' Top Stocks?

Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year.

Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation.

See Stocks Free >>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

Ciena Corporation (CIEN): Free Stock Analysis Report

Columbia Sportswear Company (COLM): Free Stock Analysis Report

Etsy, Inc. (ETSY): Free Stock Analysis Report

GigaCloud Technology Inc. (GCT): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research