The Globe and Mail attempts to identify Canadian firms with strong sales and earnings in its Tuesday edition. The Globe's guest columnist Emily Halverson-Duncan writes in the Number Cruncher column that she ranks stocks using the following factors: Five-year sales growth -- annualized, higher values preferred; quarterly earnings surprise -- a measure of the difference between a company's actual and expected earnings, higher values preferred; quarterly earnings momentum -- measured as the growth in the most recent four quarters of earnings relative to the same four quarters' earnings lagged by one quarter, higher values preferred; and trailing return on equity, higher values preferred. In order to qualify, stocks needed to have positive five-year sales growth and trailing return on equity greater than at least 50 per cent of peers (that value today is 4.99 per cent or higher). In order to control market sensitivity, five-year beta relative to the S&P/TSX Composite Index must be less than one. Only companies with a market capitalization of $500-million or more were considered. She recommends buying Ritchie Bros Auctioneers, Canadian Utilities, Enghouse Systems, Guardian Capital Group and Constellation Software.