Wednesday, May 19, 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 AT&T Inc. (T), SAP SE (SAP), and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). 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 AT&T broadly tracked the market this year, but have lost ground meaningfully following the recent announcement to spin off its media assets and merge them with the  complementary assets of Discovery.
 

The Zacks analyst believes that the transaction will enable the company to focus on core operations, reduce huge debt burden and unlock value by monetizing assets in order to augment its network infrastructure throughout the country. The company expects this holistic growth policy to add significant customer value and generate healthy ROI across the business.
 

AT&T has also unveiled a comprehensive 5G strategy and reaffirmed its guidance for 2021. However, the company is facing a steady decline in linear TV subscribers, legacy services and wireline division. As it tries to woo customers with discounts and freebies, margins tend to fall. Spectrum crisis in a saturated wireless market and continued cord-cutting remain major headwinds.
 

(You can read the full research report on AT&T here >>>)
 

Shares of SAP have outperformed the Zacks Computer - Software industry in the last three-month period (+9.7% vs. +2.9%). The Zacks analyst believes that the company is benefiting from robust uptake of S/4HANA, and SuccessFactors Employee Central solutions. Momentum witnessed by Ariba and Fieldglass solutions is also noteworthy.
 

SAP's alliances with IBM, Microsoft, Accenture and Verizon favor business prospects. Solid demand for e-commerce, digital supply chain and other cloud platform solutions, augurs well over the longer haul. SAP's performance is also likely to gain from healthy contribution from Sapphire Ventures.
 

However, soft uptake of software licenses and support offerings remains a headwind. Further, reduction in business travel due to pandemic are anticipated to impact Concur-related revenues, at least in the near term. Besides, rise in investments to enhance cloud-based offerings are likely to weigh on margins.
 

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

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices have gained +32.0% in the past one-year period against the Zacks Electronics – Semiconductors industry’s gain of +52.5%. Although, shares of AMD have underperformed the industry over the past year, the Zacks analyst believes that growing clout of 7 nanometer (nm) products in the data center vertical, driven by work-from-home and online learning trends, is a key catalyst.
 

AMD is benefiting from sales of its Ryzen and EPYC server processors, courtesy of increasing proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in industries like cloud gaming and supercomputing domain. Further, the Xilinx acquisition is anticipated to boost AMD's data center business.
 

Moreover, alliances with Amazon, Microsoft, Baidu and JD.com augment business prospects. Nevertheless, increasing investments on product development amid intense competition from NVIDIA and Intel are likely to dent margins at least in the near term.
 

(You can read the full research report on Advanced Micro Devices here >>>)
 

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A), Snap Inc. (SNAP) and Capital One Financial Corporation (COF).
 

5 Stocks Set to Double
 

Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.
 

Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
 

Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>
 

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>>>