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Research Daily

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

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 Facebook (FB), Novo Nordisk (NVO) and SAP SE (SAP). 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 >>>

Facebook shares have outperformed the S&P 500 over the past year (+26.3% vs. +19.7%) on the back of steady user growth across all regions, particularly Asia Pacific. Increased engagement for its products like Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook Watch is a major growth driver.

However, Facebook expects user-base growth to be flat or slightly down in the United States and Canada in the fourth quarter of 2020, sequentially. Ad-revenue growth on a year-over-year basis is expected to be better than the third quarter’s growth rate, driven by continued strong advertiser demand during the holiday season.

Strong demand for Oculus 2 is expected to boost other revenues. However, changes made by Apple and Google in their mobile operating systems and browser platforms have limited Facebook’s ability to track user-activity trend, which is a headwind.

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

Shares of Novo Nordisk have gained +6% in the last six months against the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry’s gain of +7.9%. The Zacks analyst believes that Tresiba, Victoza, Ozempic, Xultophy and Saxenda have been maintaining the momentum for the company. Label expansion of existing drugs will further boost sales for the company.

Novo Nordisk missed on sales but beat earnings estimates in the third quarter. Ozempic is off to a solid start and the launch of Rybelsus looks good. The label of Ozempic was further expanded by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to include a cardiovascular indication. Novo Nordisk has one of the broadest diabetes portfolios in the industry.

However, lower realized prices in the Unites States, loss of exclusivity for products in hormone replacement therapy and intensifying competition will affect sales. Moreover, the impact of COVID-19 will adversely affect the performance in the upcoming quarters.

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

SAP shares have gained +21% over the past three months against the Zacks Computer Software industry’s rise of +13.8%. The Zacks analyst believes that SAP is benefiting from robust uptake of S/4HANA, Fieldglass, and SuccessFactors Employee Central solutions.

Further, SAP's alliances with IBM, Microsoft, Accenture and Verizon favor business prospects. The company is poised to gain from solid contribution from Sapphire Ventures. Further, high demand for e-commerce, digital supply chain, Qualtrics and cloud platform solutions, bodes well.

However, rise in investments to enhance cloud-based offerings are likely to weigh on margins in near term. Soft uptake of software licenses and support offerings remains a headwind. Recently, the company reported preliminary results for Q4 wherein total revenues (non-IFRS basis) declined on a year-over-year basis.  

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and American Express (AXP).

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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>>>

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