Monday, August 14, 2023

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 Meta Platforms, Inc. (META), Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) and BlackRock, Inc. (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 >>>

Meta Platforms shares have outperformed the Zacks Internet - Software industry over the past year (+65.6% vs. +2.8%). This reflects the market's appreciation for management's effective expense-control measures earlier this year and the more signs of stabilization in the digital ad market.

Meta continues to benefit from steady user growth across all regions, particularly Asia Pacific. Increased engagement for its offerings like Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook has been a major growth driver.

Meta Platform is leveraging AI to recommend Reels content, which is driving traffic on Instagram and Facebook. The Zacks analyst expects revenues to grow at a CAGR of 12.2% between 2022 and 2025. Advertising revenues are expected to witness a CAGR of 12.5% per our model estimate.

However, challenging macroeconomic conditions remain a headwind for Meta’s advertising revenues, along with targeting and measurement headwinds due to Apple’s iOS changes. Slow monetization of Reels, along with mounting operating losses at Reality Labs, are concerns.

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

Shares of Costco Wholesale have outperformed the Zacks Retail - Discount Stores industry over the past year (+4.4% vs. +0.6%) on the back of the company's consumer defensive attributes.

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. 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 Wholesale here >>>)

BlackRock shares have modestly underperformed the Zacks Financial - Investment Management industry over the past six months (-3.1% vs. -1.7%). Increasing expenses (mainly owing to higher administration costs) are expected to hurt profits to an extent. The Zacks analyst expects total non-interest expenses to increase 2.4% this year. The company’s high dependence on overseas revenues makes us apprehensive.

However, BlackRock continues to restructure the equity business, which, along with strategic acquisitions, will likely keep supporting revenue growth, and help expand market share and footprints globally.

A solid AUM balance is expected to further support the top line. We project total revenues to witness a CAGR of 8% over the next three years ended 2025. BLK's capital deployment activities reflect a solid liquidity position.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include AT&T Inc. (T), Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) and Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD).

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>>>