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Top Analyst Reports for Home Depot, Mastercard & McDonald's

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Friday, September 29, 2017

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 Home Depot (HD - Free Report) , Mastercard (MA - Free Report) and McDonald’s (MCD - Free Report) . 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 >>>

Home Depot’s shares have gained +5.9% in the last three months, compared with the +5.1% gain of the Zacks Retail Building Products industry. The company has been consistently gaining from its interconnected strategy, focus on Pro customers, and housing market recovery. These factors helped the company post a stellar second-quarter fiscal 2017 performance, which marked its highest ever quarterly sales and earnings.

Notably, sales marked its 13th straight beat, while earnings retained its 5-year long trend of positive surprise. Results were driven by solid growth across all regions, both in stores and online. Also, Pro category sales continued to outperform, driven by constant efforts to enrich customers’ experiences. The sturdy first half and expectations of improved home prices encouraged the company to raise its fiscal 2017 view.

(You can read the full research report on Home Depot here >>>).

Mastercard’s shares have gained +12.9% in the last three months, compared with the +7.5% gain of the Zacks Financial Transaction Services industry. Revenue growth has remained strong and will continue to grow on the back of its strong market position and attractive core business that continues to be driven by new deals, renewed agreements and expansion of service offerings.

The acquisition of VocaLink and NuData Security, complement the company’s efforts to participate in new payment flows and enhance its safety and security offerings. The stock has seen the Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings being revised 1.8% upward over the last 60 days.

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

Shares of Buy-rated McDonald’s have gained +1.7% in the last three months, compared with the -3.3% dip of the Zacks Restaurants industry. Increased focus on delivery, enhancement of digital capabilities, and accelerated deployment of Experience of the Future restaurants in the U.S should drive growth, too. Efforts to attract customers in International Lead & High Growth Markets also bode well.

In fact, global comps at McDonald’s have been positive over the past eight quarters. Yet, high labor costs and currency headwinds might keep profits under pressure. Also, political and economic unrest in some parts of the world and a not so enticing U.S. restaurant space might restrict sales growth.

(You can read the full research report on McDonald’s here >>>).

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Kimberly-Clark (KMB - Free Report) , Raytheon and Northrop Grumman (NOC - Free Report) .

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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>>>