Friday, February 28, 2020

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 Medtronic (MDT), PetroChina Company (PTR) and American Tower (AMT). 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 >>>

Medtronic’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Medical Products industry over the past year (+9.7% vs. -4.9%). The Zacks analyst believes that escalating costs and expenses have been persistently building pressure on margins. Unfavorable currency movement also deterred growth in the last quarter.

Medtronic exited the third quarter of fiscal 2020 on a mixed note, with earnings beating the consensus mark but revenues missing the same. In the reported quarter, all major business groups at Medtronic saw solid top-line growth at CER. In the third quarter of fiscal 2020, within RTG, strong sales at Specialty and Brain Therapies more than offset slower growth in Pain Therapies.

Within CVG, despite the ongoing challenges, the company registered 1.8% growth at CER. The MITG arm demonstrated sturdy growth on strength across all businesses. The 2020 EPS guidance also looks promising.

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

Shares of PetroChina have lost -13.3% in the past three months against the Zacks International Integrated Oil industry’s fall of -21.4%. The Zacks analyst believes that a tight leash on oil & gas lifting costs helped the company lower the expenditure thereby boosting its upstream earnings outlook.

PetroChina has managed to lower its exploration & development cost as a means to shore up profitability. After struggling with oil production growth prospects for a long time, PetroChina seemed to have finally turned a corner. During the first three quarters of 2019, crude oil volumes – accounting for 58.6% of the total – rose 2.9% from the year-ago period to 682.7 million barrels.

Its natural gas business offers lucrative growth prospects in the coming years as China moves from coal to natural gas. Moreover, over the past few quarters, the integrated energy player's Natural Gas & Pipelines business continue to benefit from transportation and sales optimization.

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

American Tower’s shares have gained +1.1% over the past six months against the Zacks REIT and Equity Trust industry’s rise of -4.5%. The Zacks analyst believes that rise in mobile-data usage and higher investments in 4G as well as 5G technology is spurring demand for its telecom towers. This will likely drive the company’s leasing activity and organic tenant billings growth in the upcoming period.

American Tower came up with better-than-expected adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share in fourth-quarter 2019. The company witnessed decent organic tenant billing growth, though results were adversely impacted by Indian carrier consolidation-driven churn and non-recurrence of the Tata settlement.

It is enhancing its macro-tower portfolio and focusing on innovation to capture the underlying opportunities. Yet, the company has a substantially-leveraged balance sheet. Such high-debt levels might impede cash-flow growth.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Eversource Energy (ES), Entergy (ETR) and Arista Networks (ANET).

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 >>

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>>>