Top Research Reports For Alibaba, Aetna & 21st Century Fox
Zacks Investment Research | Dec 04, 2017 05:05AM ET
Monday, December 4, 2017
The Zacks Research Daily presents the best research output of our analyst team. Today's Research Daily features new research reports on 16 major stocks, including Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) (BABA), Aetna (AET) and 21st Century Fox (FOXA). These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.
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Buy-rated Alibaba’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Electronic Commerce industry, on a year-to-date basis, gaining +98.8% vs. +58.1%. Alibaba's solid growth in the company’s core e-commerce business, strong growth in metrics and international strength help it to generate significant revenues. Other drivers include strong mobile strength.
The Zacks analyst likes Alibaba’s strong core e-commerce business, its continued efforts to develop new products, international growth opportunities, strong financial position and growing cloud computing services. However, macro headwinds, continued investments and increasing competition from Tencent Holdings and Baidu remain the overhangs.
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Shares of Aetna have outperformed the Zacks Health Maintenance Organization industry year to date, increasing +46.2% vs. a gain of +44.1%. The recent agreement on the acquisition of the company by CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) seems to be grand opportunity for the former. This is because this buyout is expected to aid Aetna to expand its scale and size, which in turn would help the company to negotiate with drug manufacturers and pharmacies in an improved manner.
The deal should bring significant earnings growth, which has been hurt by a number of headwinds. These headwinds include increase in medical benefit ratio, pressure on membership, Medicaid contract loss and exit of individual commercial business on public exchanges. Nevertheless, its strong capital position would enable share buybacks that should provide a cushion to the bottom line. Also, cost control efforts are anticipated to aid the margins.
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21st Century Fox’s shares have increased +16.8% over the last year, outperforming the Zacks Film and Television industry, which has gained +15.1% over the same period. The company continues to impress investors with its positive earnings surprise for the sixth straight quarter, when it reported first-quarter fiscal 2018 results.
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The quarter also marked its second successive revenue beat, wherein both the top and bottom line grew year over year. The company’s impressive performance was driven by robust affiliate revenues across the Cable Network Programming and Television segments. Higher content revenues at the Filmed Entertainment segment also contributed.
Despite these tailwinds, elevated programming costs remain a cause of concern. Increase in expenses may dent margins and in turn the bottom line. Further, the company’s proposed acquisition of remaining 61% stake in Sky plc hit a roadblock after U.K. Culture Secretary Karen Bradley demanded a detailed review from the Competition and Markets Authority.
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Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Adobe (ADBE), Public Service Enterprise Group (NYSE:PEG) (PEG) and Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD).
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Today's Must Read/h6
Featured Reports/h6
Per the Zacks analyst, huge investment plan enables Public Service Enterprise to upgrade and expand its operations. Yet it has to incur significant compliance costs to abide by environmental rules.
The Zacks analyst believes that concerns generated by Pioneer's high exploration expenses will be offset by the company's focus on lucrative Permian Basin.
The Zacks analyst likes the company's efforts to upgrade its fleet. Increased labor and fuel costs, however, are hurting the bottom-line.
Per the Zacks Analyst, Citizens Financial's "Tapping Our Potential" (TOP) initiatives are expected to boost revenues and efficiency.
The Zacks analyst believes that Trimble's acquisition strategy, product enhancements, along with its re-aligned cost structure are positives.
The Zacks analyst believes that Expedia's buyout of SilverRail will lead to increased penetration in existing markets and expansion in others.
The Zacks analyst is impressed with soaring demand for Align's InvisAlign products in the teen market worldwide.
Per the Zacks analyst, huge investment plan enables Public Service Enterprise to upgrade and expand its operations. Yet it has to incur significant compliance costs to abide by environmental rules.
The Zacks analyst believes that concerns generated by Pioneer's high exploration expenses will be offset by the company's focus on lucrative Permian Basin.
The Zacks analyst likes the company's efforts to upgrade its fleet. Increased labor and fuel costs, however, are hurting the bottom-line.
Per the Zacks Analyst, Citizens Financial's "Tapping Our Potential" (TOP) initiatives are expected to boost revenues and efficiency.
The Zacks analyst believes that Trimble's acquisition strategy, product enhancements, along with its re-aligned cost structure are positives.
The Zacks analyst believes that Expedia's buyout of SilverRail will lead to increased penetration in existing markets and expansion in others.
The Zacks analyst is impressed with soaring demand for Align's InvisAlign products in the teen market worldwide.
New Upgrades/h6
The Zacks analyst thinks the company should gain from its expansion initiatives in the fast-growing Permian Basin. The Sandbox acquisition should also drive margins in 2017.
The Zacks analyst believes that the acquisition of TubeMogul is helping Adobe to expand its offerings and strengthen its foothold in the digital marketing space.
The Zacks analyst believe Pepsi's aggressive marketing, new product lineup, productivity improvement and cost-saving initiatives should give a boost to profits.
The Zacks analyst thinks the company should gain from its expansion initiatives in the fast-growing Permian Basin. The Sandbox acquisition should also drive margins in 2017.
The Zacks analyst believes that the acquisition of TubeMogul is helping Adobe to expand its offerings and strengthen its foothold in the digital marketing space.
The Zacks analyst believe Pepsi's aggressive marketing, new product lineup, productivity improvement and cost-saving initiatives should give a boost to profits.
New Downgrades/h6
Per the Zacks analyst, the failure of phase I study comparing the pharmacokinetics, safety and immunogenicity of M834 to Orencia Bristol-Myers arthritis drug Orencia was a major setback for Momenta.
Per the Zacks analyst, though Synopsys' sustained focus on introducing products and acquisitions will drive revenues, escalating expenses will hurt its margins and profitability in the near term.
Per the Zacks analyst increasing expenses have weighed on the company's margins and the same are expected to rise over the coming quarters given its ongoing investments in business expansion.
Per the Zacks analyst, the failure of phase I study comparing the pharmacokinetics, safety and immunogenicity of M834 to Orencia Bristol-Myers arthritis drug Orencia was a major setback for Momenta.
Per the Zacks analyst, though Synopsys' sustained focus on introducing products and acquisitions will drive revenues, escalating expenses will hurt its margins and profitability in the near term.
Per the Zacks analyst increasing expenses have weighed on the company's margins and the same are expected to rise over the coming quarters given its ongoing investments in business expansion.
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