Whether you're a growth, value, income, or momentum-focused investor, building a successful investment portfolio takes skill, research, and a little bit of luck.But how do you find the right combination of stocks? Funding your retirement, your kids' college tuition, or your short- and long-term savings goals certainly requires significant returns.Enter the Zacks Rank.What is the Zacks Rank?The Zacks Rank is a unique, proprietary stock-rating model that utilizes earnings estimate revisions to help investors build a winning portfolio.There are four main factors behind the Zacks Rank: Agreement, Magnitude, Upside, and Surprise.Agreement is the extent to which all brokerage analysts are revising their earnings estimates in the same direction. The greater the percentage of analysts revising their estimates higher, the better chance the stock will outperform.Magnitude is the size of the recent change in the consensus estimate for the current and next fiscal years.Upside is the difference between the most accurate estimate, which is calculated by Zacks, and the consensus estimate.Surprise is made up of a company's last few quarters' earnings per share surprises; companies with a positive earnings surprise are more likely to beat expectations in the future.Each factor is given a raw score, which is recalculated every night and compiled into the Zacks Rank. Utilizing this data, stocks are put into five different groups: Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell.The Power of Institutional InvestorsThe Zacks Rank also allows individual investors, or retail investors, to benefit from the power of institutional investors.Institutional investors are the professionals who manage the trillions of dollars invested in mutual funds, investment banks, and hedge funds. Studies have shown that these investors can and do move the market due to the large amounts of money they invest with. Because of this, the market tends to move in the same direction as institutional investors.These investors are known for designing valuation models that focus on earnings and earnings expectations in order to figure out the fair value of a company and its shares. If earnings estimates are raised, it puts a higher value on a company.Institutional investors will use these changes to help in their decision-making, typically buying stocks with rising estimates and selling those with falling estimates. Higher earnings expectations can translate into a rise in stock price and bigger gains for the investor.Retail investors who get in at the first sign of upward revisions have a distinct advantage over larger investors since it can often take weeks, if not months, for an institutional investor to build a position. They'll also benefit from the expected institutional buying that could follow.Not only can the Zacks Rank help you take advantage of trends in earnings estimate revisions, but it can also provide a way to get into stocks that are highly sought after by professionals.How to Invest with the Zacks RankThe Zacks Rank is known for transforming investment portfolios. In fact, a portfolio of Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks has beaten the market in 26 of the last 32 years, with an average annual return of +25.41%.Moreover, stocks with a new #1 (Strong Buy) ranking have some of the biggest profit potential, while those that fell to a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) have some of the worst.Let's take a look at Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS), which was added to the Zacks Rank #1 list on January 25, 2022.DICK’S Sporting Goods Inc. was founded in 1948 in New York under the labels Dick's Clothing and Sporting Goods, Inc. It was earlier reincorporated as a Delaware corporation and changed our name to Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. in April 1999. The company’s executive office is located in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania.For fiscal 2022, nine analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $1.02 to $15.40 per share. DKS boasts an average earnings surprise of 104.2%.Analysts are expecting earnings to grow 151.6% for the current fiscal year, with revenue forecasted to rise 27.8%.DKS has been moving higher over the past four weeks as well, up 9.8% compared to the S&P 500's loss of 7.7%.Bottom LineWith a #1 (Strong Buy) ranking, positive trend in earnings estimate revisions, and strong market momentum, Dick's Sporting Goods should be on investors' shortlist.If you want even more information on the Zacks Ranks, or one of our many other investing strategies, check out the Zacks Education home page.Discover Today's Top StocksOur private Zacks #1 Rank List, based on our quantitative Zacks Rank stock-rating system, has more than doubled the S&P 500 since 1988. Applying the Zacks Rank in your own trading can boost your investing returns on your very next trade. See Today's Zacks #1 Rank List >> Zacks Names "Single Best Pick to Double" From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all. As one investor put it, “curing and preventing hundreds of diseases…what should that market be worth?” This company could rival or surpass other recent Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Boston Beer Company which shot up +143.0% in little more than 9 months and NVIDIA which boomed +175.9% in one year.Free: See Our Top Stock and 4 Runners Up >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report DICK'S Sporting Goods, Inc. (DKS): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research