An Emerging Growth subscriber recently asked for my opinion on Astronics (ATRO). If you're not familiar with the stock, the company is riding the boom in commercial aviation. Astronics makes the lighting systems, especially the emergency lighting, on many airplanes.

ATRO has both a Quantitative and a Fundamental "A" grade, so it naturally has an Overall "A" grade, making it a Strong Buy. I should that ATRO is a very small-cap stock, so it's very sensitive to liquidity. This is the kind of stock that tends to do well in a rising volume environment, especially January, when many smaller stocks have historically performed well.

Sometimes we get an early January effect in December, so the stock is an outstanding buy right now. In the past four quarters, ATRO's sales are up 35.9%, while its earnings have climbed 142.9%. In the past three months, the analyst community has revised their earnings estimates 17.2% higher. Typically such positive earnings revisions precede earnings surprises. My opinion is that Astronics' recent pullback is an incredible buying opportunity.