Wednesday, April 6, 2022

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 Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), CVS Health Corporation (CVS), and American Tower Corporation (AMT). These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.
 

You can see all of today’s research reports here >>>

Shares of Merck have outperformed the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry over the year-to-date period (+10.2% vs. +5.4%) on the back of strong sales from drugs like Keytruda, Lynparza, and Bridion. Animal health and vaccine products remain core growth drivers. Its new oral antiviral pill for COVID-19, molnupiravir, will be a key top-line driver in 2022. Merck boasts a strong cancer pipeline, including Keytruda, which should help drive long-term growth.
 

The separation into two companies should enable Merck to achieve higher profits than the combined company. However, generic competition for several drugs and rising competitive pressure, mainly on the diabetes franchise, will continue to be overhangs on the top line. There are concerns about Merck’s ability to grow its non-oncology business ahead of Keytruda loss of exclusivity later in the decade.

(You can read the full research report on Merck here >>>)

Shares of CVS Health have outperformed the Zacks Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry over the past year (+36.7% vs. +16.1%) as the company continues to come out with stellar results. In the last reported quarter, the company administered more than 8 million COVID-19 tests and more than 20 million COVID-19 vaccines nationwide. It took several steps to support the acceleration of its omnichannel health strategy, including creating new store formats and optimizing its retail footprint to align with evolving customer needs.
 

The Zacks analyst believes that the company is strengthening the consumer experience by expanding digital services and platforms to health services and in-person channels for more than 40 million unique digital customers. However, the rise in operating costs is building pressure on the bottom line.

(You can read the full research report on CVS Health here >>>)

American Tower shares have gained +9.5% over the past year as against the Zacks REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry’s gain of +18.3%. The Zacks analyst believes that the extensive and geographically diversified communication real estate portfolio is well-poised to benefit from the increasing capital spending by wireless carriers due to 5G deployments and the future deployment of an additional spectrum. The company is strengthening its portfolio through acquisitions. In December, American Tower announced completing the buyout of CoreSite.
 

In March, American Tower also announced an increase in its quarterly dividend, which augurs well for investors. However, the stiff competition from other tower companies is likely to increase pricing pressure. Moreover, tenant concentration is concerning as consolidations or a reduction in network spending adversely impact the company’s top line.
 

(You can read the full research report on American Tower here >>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM), PetroChina Company Limited (PTR), and Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI).

Sheraz Mian
 
Director of Research

Note: Sheraz Mian heads the Zacks Equity Research department and is a well-regarded expert of aggregate earnings. He is frequently quoted in the print and electronic media and publishes the weekly Earnings Trends and Earnings Preview reports. If you want an email notification each time Sheraz publishes a new article, please click here>>>