Monday, February 12, 2018

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 Boeing (BA), Disney (DIS) and BlackRock (BLK). 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 >>>

Strong Buy-rated Boeing’s shares have surged +98.1% over the last one year, outperforming the Zacks Aerospace & Defense sector, which gained +47.8% during the same time period. Boeing ended 2017 on an impressive note, with its fourth-quarter earnings as well as revenues comfortably surpassing expectations.

Year over year results also reflected improvement. Notably, Boeing is the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world in terms of revenues, orders and deliveries. In this regard, the company’s 20-year market outlook forecasts commercial jetliner demand to increase by 3.6%. Boeing expects single-aisle jets to be the major driver behind this demand growth.

Meanwhile, the Middle East has emerged as another promising market for Boeing. That said, this aerospace company continues to face challenges from stiff competition as well as falling delivery numbers.

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

Shares of Disney have increased +1.7% over the last six months vs. the Zacks Media Conglomerates industry’s -2% decline in that same time period. Parks & Resorts division once again turned out to be the savior for Disney in first-quarter fiscal 2018.

The company delivered a positive earnings surprise after missing expectations in the preceding quarter. However, the big takeaway from the quarter was top-line performance, which surpassed the consensus mark for the first time in six quarters.

Further, Disney is acquiring majority of Twenty-First Century Fox’s assets, which includes its Film and Television studios, accompanied by cable and international TV businesses. The deal provides a bout of fresh air to Disney, which for quite some time now has been jostling in the fast changing media landscape.

The addition of Fox's rich library of movies and TV series would greatly enhance Disney’s prospects in the streaming service. However, falling subscribers at ESPN remain a concern.

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

Buy-rated BlackRock’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Investment Management industry in the last six months, (+21.8% vs. +7.7%). This performance is supported by impressive earnings surprise history as the company surpassed expectations in three of the trailing four quarters.

Its fourth-quarter 2017 results benefited from improvement in revenues, rise in assets under management (AUM) and steady long-term inflows, partly offset by higher expenses. The company is undertaking initiatives to restructure its actively managed equities business with an aim to meet changing client needs.

These, along with technological changes and its efforts to expand globally via acquisitions will further help top-line growth. However, mounting expenses mainly due to continued rise in marketing costs is likely to hurt the bottom-line growth to some extent.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include General Motors (GM), Chubb (CB) and Blackstone (BX).

Wall Street’s Next Amazon

Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius.

Click for details >>

Mark Vickery

Senior Editor

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>>>