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Research Daily

Brian Hamilton

Top Stock Reports for Oracle, Allergan & Abbott

ABT VLO ORCL ADBE

Trades from $3

Friday June 23 2017

The Zacks Research Daily presents the best research output of our analyst team. Today's Research Daily features new research reports on 12 major stocks, including Oracle (ORCL), Allergan (AGN), and Abbott (ABT).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 >>>

Buy rated Oracle shares have outperformed the Zacks Technology Sector year-to-date, gaining +33.1% vs. +15.4%. The company’s offerings in SaaS and PaaS have gained significant momentum in the past few quarters, which improves the company's competitive position in the red hot cloud space, particularly against salesforce.com and Workday. The Zacks analyst likes the company’s growing cloud market share and sees the positive momentum in this area as a notable top-line growth driver. Moreover, Oracle continues to win new customers in HCM, ERP and CX. However, high investments in IaaS will affect gross margin expansion in the near-term. Further, a strong U.S. dollar remains a headwind.

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

Shares of Allergan have gained +17.1% year to date, outperforming the Zacks Medical-Generic Drugs industry, which has increased +0.3% over the same period. The Zacks analyst likes products like Botox and Linzess as well as new products, which are supporting sales growth. With the closing of the Teva deal, Allergan can now focus on the branded segment and is using the proceeds to buy back shares, pay down debt and pursue additional deals. Biosimilars also represent a significant opportunity. However, Allergan faces generic threats for legacy brands like Namenda IR as well as patent challenges for some of the other products in its branded portfolio. Also new competition for key growth drivers, Restasis and Linzess, is an investor concern.

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

Abbott’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Medical sector in the year-to-date period (the stock is up +28.1% vs. +14.3% gain for the sector) on the back of greater appreciation for the company's strategic repositioning through acquisitions/divestitures. A case in point is the St. Jude Medical buyout that complements the company cardiovascular devices business. Recently, Abbott received CE mark for its TactiCath Sensor and Confirm Rx ICM products which is quite encouraging. All in all, market participants like management's strategic focus on core therapeutic areas. On the flip side, the analyst identifies weakness in the nutrition business in China and sluggish growth in the Venezuelan market as areas of concern.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Adobe (ADBE), Alexion (ALXN) and Valero (VLO).

Sell These Stocks. Now.

Just released, today's 220 Zacks Rank #5 Strong Sells demand urgent attention. If any are lurking in your portfolio or Watch List, they should be removed immediately. These sinister companies because many appear to be sound investments. However, from 1988 through 2016, stocks from our Strong Sell list have actually performed 6X worse than the S&P 500. 

See today's Zacks "Strong Sells" absolutely free >>.

Brian Hamilton

Investment Research Coordinator

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>>>

Featured Reports

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