Friday, August 12, 2016

Today's Research Daily write-up features research reports on 14 companies, including reports on Merck (MRK), Ralph Lauren (RL) and PNC Financial (PNC). These 14 reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 60 research reports issued by our analyst team today. You can get access to all of today's research reports here >>>

Merck shares have outperformed its big pharma peers latey (the stock is up more than 18% year-to-date), with the company's strong second-quarter resutls helping sustain the favorable momentum. The analyst likes the company’s cost-cutting initiatives, efforts to expand its pipeline and focus on core areas of expertise are also encouraging. Merck has made significant progress with its pipeline and is working on bringing new products to market.  (You can read the full research report on MRK here>>)

Ralph Lauren shares have surged following the strong quarterly report earlier this week where the company came out with solid top- and bottom-line beats on the back of impressive margin gains. While the company is still faced with many challenges, the analyst likes this Zacks Rank # 2 (Buy) stock for the company’s portfolio repositioning strategy, which would help it focus exclusively on its core, high-density urban markets for the long term.  (You can read the full research report on RL here>>)

PNC Financial shares have lagged the market this year, inline with the overall tough interest rate environment that has been weighing on on all banks lately. These macro headwinds notwithstanding, the analyst likes the company's capital strength, which was reflected by its successful clearance of the Fed stress test and the recent dividend hike as part of its 2016 capital plan. Its diverse revenue mix, balance-sheet strengthening efforts and cost management are other positives. (You can read the full research report on PNC here>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Charter Communications (CHTR), Discover Financial (DFS) and Novo Nordisk (NVO).

You can find all of today's stock research reports here>>

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Sheraz Mian

Director of Research

Note: Sheraz Mian regularly provides earnings analysis on Zacks.com and appears frequently in the print and electronic media. His weekly earnings related articles include Earnings Trends and Earnings Preview. He also provides weekly commentary to Zacks Premium subscribers and manages the Zacks Focus List and Top 10 portfolios.

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