Wednesday, June 14, 2023

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 Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST), Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO). 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 >>>

Costco shares have outperformed the Zacks Retail - Discount Stores industry over the past year (+15.6% vs. +10.8%). The company being a consumer defensive stock has been surviving the market turmoil pretty well. The discount retailer’s key strengths are strategic investments, a customer-centric approach, merchandise initiatives, and an emphasis on membership growth.

These factors have been helping it register decent sales and earnings numbers. The Zacks analyst expects the company to register a 6% adjusted earnings per share improvement in fiscal 2023 on 6.2% revenue growth. This outlook reflects Costco’s ability to navigate the challenging operating environment, generate solid sales, and register high membership renewal rates.

A favorable product mix, steady store traffic, pricing power and strong liquidity position should help Costco keep outperforming. While trading at a premium to its peers, its long-term growth prospects should help the stock see a solid upside.

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

Shares of Salesforce have outperformed the Zacks Computer - Software industry over the past six months (+60.2% vs. +35.5%). The company is benefiting from a robust demand environment as customers are undergoing a major digital transformation. The rapid adoption of its cloud-based solutions is driving demand for its products.

Its sustained focus on introducing more aligned products as per customer needs is driving its top-line. Continued deal wins in the international market is another growth driver. The acquisition of Slack would position the company to be a leader in enterprise team collaboration solution space and better compete with Microsoft’s Teams product.

However, stiff competition and unfavorable currency fluctuations are concerns. Besides, challenging macroeconomic environment might hurt its growth prospects in the near-term.

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

Shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific have gained +2.4% over the past year against the Zacks Medical - Instruments industry’s gain of +14.3%. Company’s robust year-over-year revenue growth in the Analytical Instruments and the Laboratory Products and Biopharma Services segments appears promising.

During the first quarter, Thermo Fisher launched a range of high-impact, advanced new products, including the Thermo Scientific iCAP RQ Plus ICP-MS Analyzer. The company continued to strengthen its unique customer-value proposition by advancing the strategic partnership with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Yet, the year-over-year decline in revenues in the Life Science Solutions and Specialty Diagnostics segment is disappointing. The contraction of margins does not bode well either.

(You can read the full research report on Thermo Fisher Scientific here >>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Morgan Stanley (MS), Medtronic plc (MDT) and BP p.l.c. (BP).

Director of Research

Sheraz Mian

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>>>