CANSLIM Stock: HFF, Inc (HF)

I’ve known about the CANSLIM method for picking stocks since 2007/08. Back then, I used MSN Money’s stock screener to find suitable stocks, but that has since been discontinued. About a year ago, I created an Excel file that uses the RCH Stock Market Functions Excel add-in to pull data from public sources and calculate my own metrics to find stocks that meet the CANSLIM criteria.
I’m currently looking at HFF, Inc (HF) as it meets almost all of the CANSLIM criteria and is sporting a very nice cup & handle pattern.

CANSLIM Criteria	Target	Actual
YoY Net Income Growth Rate	20%	35%
YoY Sales Growth Rate	25%	26%
EPS Growing past 3 years?	Yes	Yes
EPS Estimate Higher than last year?	Yes	Yes
3yr EPS Growth Rate	25%	50%
Net Income Growth Rate (5-Year Average) OPTIONAL	25%	150%
Return on Equity (5-year average)	17%	30%
Within 10% of High	Yes	Yes
New Product, Management, etc?	Yes	Lots of closed deals in Dec, 2014
Insider Ownership	10%	13%
12-month relative strength percentile	80%	54%
6-month relative strength percentile	80%	34%
3-month relative strength percentile	80%	85%
Institutional Ownership	5%-35%	76%
Notes		Financial/property management

Chart

The Cup & Handle is well formed with declining volume in the handle.

My strategy is to buy at $37.25 if volume is 25-50% higher than average on the breakout day. My stop will be @ $34.64 (7%) and my limit is $44.70 unless the stock reaches that target within a couple of weeks, in which case I will hold longer.