As the spring season kicked off, economic activity across all the sectors are likely to step up, injecting fresh optimism in both business and consumer confidence.

The housing and transport sectors in particular gain momentum with demand building up over the frigid winter for new homes and transportation, which is a barometer of broad economic health. This spring, solid job gains, slowly rising wages, and higher spending power buoyed by cheap fuel will add to the strength. The combination of these factors will give a boost to the stock market, which saw a scary start to the year but made an impressive comeback over the past one month.

While value stocks have been gathering maximum attention this year, growth stocks have more upside potential in the coming month buoyed by spring fever. This is especially true as growth investing is basically a momentum play and a great strategy in a trending market (a market characterized by a prolonged uptrend).

Growth stocks refer to high-quality stocks that are likely to witness revenue and earnings increase at a faster rate than the industry average. These stocks harness their momentum in earnings to create a positive bias in the market, resulting in rocketing share prices. As such, growth stocks tend to outperform during an uptrend (read: Growth ETFs Regain Momentum: Will This Last?).

Given this, investors should recycle their portfolio into the growth space to obtain a nice momentum play. For them, we have presented four ETFs and stocks that are ready to bloom this spring.

ETFs Picks

Using our database, we have selected growth ETFs that provide exposure to the broad stock market instead of a particular sector and have a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). This is because these ranks suggest strengthening fundamentals and superior weighting methodologies that could allow them to lead higher than their cousins in a booming market. Further, these funds have outperformed the broad market fund (SPY) by a wide margin over the past one year. Notably, SPY delivered returns of 0.82% in the same time period.
 
iShares Russell Top 200 Growth ETF (IWY - ETF report)

This fund offers exposure to the large-cap segment by tracking the Russell Top 200 Growth Index.

Zacks ETF Rank: #3

Expense Ratio: 0.20%

AUM: $622 million

No. of Stocks: 137

One-Year Return: 3.76%

PowerShares QQQ (QQQ - ETF report)

This fund also offers exposure to the large-cap equities and follows the Nasdaq 100 index (see: all the Large Cap ETFs here).
 
Zacks ETF Rank: #3
Expense Ratio: 0.20%
AUM: $37.8 billion
No. of Stocks: 106
One-Year Return: 2.80%
 
Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF (VOOG - ETF report)
 
This fund tracks the S&P 500 Growth Index.
 
Zacks ETF Rank: #3
Expense Ratio: 0.15%
AUM: $795.9 million
No. of Stocks: 311
One-Year Return: 2.06%
 
Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth ETF (VONG - ETF report)

This ETF tracks the Russell 1000 Growth Index.

Zacks ETF Rank: #3
Expense Ratio: 0.12%
AUM: $515.8 million
No. of Stocks: 641
One-Year Return: 1.10%

Stock Picks

For stocks, we have chosen four top picks using the Zacks Screener that fits our five criteria: a Zacks Rank #1, a Growth Style Score of ‘A’, Zacks Industry Rank within the top 15%, market cap of over 1 billion, and positive relative price change (compared to the S&P 500). Here are our chosen stocks (read: Ride the Dow Bull with These ETFs):
 
Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN - Analyst Report)

This Arkansas-based company is one of the world’s largest producers of chicken, beef, pork and prepared foods, offering a wide range of protein-based and prepared foods products.

Zacks Industry Rank: Top 2%
Market Cap: $24.29 billion
Relative Price Change: 25.92

John Bean Technologies Corporation (JBT - Snapshot Report)

This Illinois-based company is a leading global technology solutions provider to high-value segments of the food processing and air transportation industries.

Zacks Industry Rank: Top 6%
Market Cap: $1.60 billion
Relative Price Change: 9.98

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (SWHC - Snapshot Report)

This Massachusetts-based company is one of the world's leading producers of quality handguns, law enforcement products and firearm safety and security products (read: 7 Best Stocks & ETFs of 7-Year Bull Run).
 
Zacks Industry Rank: Top 10%
Market Cap: $1.46 billion
Relative Price Change: 21.13
 
Insperity Inc. (NSP - Snapshot Report)

This Texas-based company provides an array of human resources and business solutions to enhance the performance of small and medium-sized businesses in the United States.

Zacks Industry Rank: Top 10%
Market Cap: $1.09 billion
Relative Price Change: 6.63