CIRCOR International, Inc. (CIR)

Based in Burlington, Mass., Circor serves customers around the world in a variety of markets, including aerospace, chemical, energy, cryogenics, food processing, instrumentation, manufacturing, maritime, medical, military, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, semiconductors and textiles.

Thanks to acquisitions and internal development, the company apparently will not miss a beat as it moves between a historical five-year earnings-growth rate of 17.6% and a projected five-year earnings-growth rate of 18.0%.

Meanwhile, the stock is attractively valued. Using the actual figures for its earnings per share during the past four quarters, its price-to-earnings ratio is 20.3; using the Zacks consensus estimate for its EPS this year, its P/E ratio is 16.6. Perhaps more tellingly, its P/E-to-growth ratio is 0.91.

Brokerage analysts are well aware of Circor's admirable attributes as they have raised their earnings estimates for both 2008 and 2009 over the past 60 days. Accordingly, the consensus estimates have risen to $3.23 from $2.88 per share for the former and to $3.59 from $3.17 per share for the latter.

Technically speaking, CIR has been on fire since Apr 21, when it gapped upward on above-average volume. On the previous trading day, Circor boosted its first-quarter EPS guidance to a range between $0.74 and $0.77 per share from a range between 54 cents and 58 cents per share. On Apr 30, the company delivered in line with its revised outlook, reporting EPS of 76 cents per share.

Because of CIR's breakout, there is no readily identifiable resistance above its current share price, while support centered on $52.01 appears comparatively strong. Even though the stock is overbought at this time, a move to the upside appears more likely than does a move to the downside.