For today's edition of our upgrade list, we used our website's advanced screening functions to search for UPGRADES to BUY or STRONG BUY with complete forecast and valuation data. They are presented by one-month forecast return. We had no STRONG BUY upgrades today, so all five tickers shown here are BUY-rated companies. Of these five BUY-rated stocks, Schulman Inc (SHLM) is our overall leader.

For today's bulletin, we take a look at our top-ranked BUY upgrade, Schulman Inc.(SHLM). Schulman operates in one industry segment which is the sale of plastic resins to customers who use the products as raw materials in their manufacturing operations. The Company purchases plastic resins and other materials which either can be sold directly to customers or used by the Company in the manufacture of other products for sale to customers. All of the products which the Company sells are used for the same purpose--as raw material to be molded or extruded by the Company's customers.

Schulman is an Akron, Ohio-based polymer company that recently saw share prices dive due to lowered guidance. The company took that step due to issues related to "margin compression" in its European market--raw materials costs are rising while the firm cannot raise prices to match. The company now expects net income of $1.60-1.70/share which is down significantly from prior estimates of $2.08-2.80/share.

The company CEO, Joseph M. Gingo has noted that

While our volumes in Europe remain on track with our expectations, we are incurring significant margin pressure in the region due to the magnitude and timing of raw material cost increases. This compression compounds the macroeconomic headwinds and previously disclosed operational challenges thus making our full-year guidance unattainable, despite the continued progress we are making in this reset year.

Below is our latest data for Schulman Inc.(SHLM):

ValuEngine updated its recommendation from HOLD to BUY for Schulman Inc. on 2017-08-11. Based on the information we have gathered and our resulting research, we feel that Schulman Inc. has the probability to OUTPERFORM average market performance for the next year. The company exhibits ATTRACTIVE Price Sales Ratio and P/E Ratio.

Valuation & Rankings
Valuation	1.52% undervalued	Valuation Rank(?)	55
1-M Forecast Return	0.71%	1-M Forecast Return Rank	92
12-M Return	22.66%	Momentum Rank(?)	74
Sharpe Ratio	0.11	Sharpe Ratio Rank(?)	55
5-Y Avg Annual Return	3.70%	5-Y Avg Annual Rtn Rank	56
Volatility	32.27%	Volatility Rank(?)	49
Expected EPS Growth	22.61%	EPS Growth Rank(?)	59
Market Cap (billions)	0.78	Size Rank	59
Trailing P/E Ratio	14.81	Trailing P/E Rank(?)	78
Forward P/E Ratio	12.08	Forward P/E Ratio Rank	74
PEG Ratio	0.65	PEG Ratio Rank	54
Price/Sales	0.32	Price/Sales Rank(?)	90
Market/Book	4.41	Market/Book Rank(?)	29
Beta	1.49	Beta Rank	20
Alpha	-0.30	Alpha Rank	17