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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Novo Nordisk, NextEra Energy, 3M Co, General Motors and U.S. Bancorp

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – March 19, 2021 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO - Free Report) , NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE - Free Report) , 3M Company (MMM - Free Report) , General Motors Company (GM - Free Report) and U.S. Bancorp (USB - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Analyst Reports for Novo Nordisk, NextEra and 3M

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 Novo Nordisk, NextEra Energy, and 3M Co. 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 >>>

Novo Nordisk shares have outperformed the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceutical industry over the past year (+37.2% vs. +24.6%). The Zacks analyst believes that drugs like Victoza, Ozempic, Xultophy and Saxenda have been helping the company maintain momentum. Label expansion of existing drugs will further boost sales.

Novo Nordisk beat both sales and earnings estimates for the fourth quarter of 2020. Ozempic is off to a solid start and the launch of Rybelsus looks impressive. Novo Nordisk has one of the broadest diabetes portfolios in the industry.

In 2021, the company will keep focusing on commercial execution, while conducting more late-stage clinical studies than ever to meet the needs of the people living with diabetes and other serious chronic diseases.

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

NextEra Energy shares have gained +2.4% over the last six months against the Zacks Electric Power industry's gain of +8.5%. The Zacks analyst believes that a well-chalked capital investment plan, natural gas pipeline projects, robust renewable backlog, addition of renewable generation assets, acquisitions and adequate liquidity will boost its performance.

The company carried strategic acquisitions and its capital growth projects amid this crisis, and has ample liquidity to meet its current debt obligations. However, its nature of business is subject to complex and comprehensive federal, state, as well as other regulations.

If the planned nuclear plant outages last longer or an unplanned outage occurs, the company's operations and profitability might be hampered.

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

Shares of 3M Co. have gained +8.7% in the past three months against the Zacks Diversified Operations industry's gain of +5.4%. The Zacks analyst believes that the company is well-positioned to benefit from its solid product portfolio, restructuring actions, inorganic actions and shareholder-friendly policies.

Demand is expected to be high in various end markets, including personal safety, home improvement and others. For 2021, the company expects adjusted earnings of $9.20-$9.70 and year-over-year sales growth of 5-8%.

However, the impacts of 2020 headwinds, raw material prices and divestitures are expected to hurt earnings in 2021. Also, woes related to huge debts and international exposure as well as expenses related to research and development, and restructuring charges might be concerning.

(You can read the full research report on 3M Company here >>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include General Motors and U.S. Bancorp.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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