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Funko, Bloomin' Brands, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and BioNTech highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
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For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – December 7, 2021 – Zacks Equity Research Shares of Funko, Inc. (FNKO - Free Report) as the Bull of the Day, Bloomin' Brands, Inc. (BLMN - Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Free Report) , Pfizer Inc. (PFE - Free Report) and BioNTech SE (BNTX - Free Report) .
So many boom-and-bust cycles have played themselves out over the last several months. We had the crazy crypto moves with Dogecoin and Shiba Innu, a hyperbolic move in high-growth tech stocks like Tesla, and a market that up until a couple weeks ago was simply untouchable. Then what happened? Perhaps a sober moment with market participants realizing how overbought the broad market was.
Eventually, the cream will rise to the top. One way of finding these stocks is by looking for companies with the strongest earnings. The Zacks Rank allows users to find these stocks. Those with the strongest Zacks Ranks have the best earnings trends. That tends to lead to long-term profits.
One such example is today’s Bull of the Day, Funko. Funko, Inc., a pop culture consumer products company, designs, sources, and distributes licensed pop culture products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers vinyl, blind-packed miniature, and action figures; plush products; accessories; apparels, such as t-shirts and hats; homewares, including drinkware, party lights and other home accessories, such as keychains, pens, and pins; and bags, purses and wallets, and board games.
Currently, Funko is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). In addition to the favorable rank, Funko enjoys a Zacks Value Style Score of B, Growth of C, and Momentum of B to help it round out with a VGM Composite Score of A. The reason for the favorable rank is the recent upside earnings estimate revisions coming from analysts. Over the last thirty days, six analysts have increased their estimates for the current year while the same number has hiked their numbers for next year. The bullish sentiment has juiced up our Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year from $1.15 to $1.26 while next year’s number is up from $1.30 to $1.38.
There is no question that the pandemic was the straw that broke the camel’s back for several restaurants all across the US. As the world crawled out from underneath the curtain of closures, it looked like this industry was going to bounce back. However, it appears that for at least a few of these restaurants, the optimism sort of “out-kicked the coverage.” What I mean by that is, folks simply got a little too bullish about how strong the bounce-back would be.
One such stock that is not quite bouncing back as strong as the market would have liked is today’s Bear of the Day. I’m talking about Bloomin’ Brands. Bloomin' Brands, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates casual, upscale casual, and fine dining restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, U.S. and International. Its restaurant portfolio has four concepts, including Outback Steakhouse, a casual steakhouse restaurant; Carrabba's Italian Grill, a casual Italian restaurant; Bonefish Grill, a casual seafood restaurant; and Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, a contemporary steakhouse.
Currently, Bloomin’ Brands is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), although it does enjoy the rare instance of having a Zacks Value Style Score of A, Growth of A, and Momentum of B to help it round out with a VGM Composite Score of A. The Retail- Restaurants industry ranks in the Bottom 8% of our Zacks Industry Rank. The reason for the unfavorable rank is the series of negative earnings estimate revisions coming from analysts. Over the last sixty days, six analysts have cut their estimates for not only the current year but next year. The bearish moves have cut the Zacks Consensus Estimates for the current year from $2.81 to $2.62 while next year’s number is off from $2.86 to $2.53.
Additional content:
J&J Covid Booster Compares Well with Pfizer/BioNTech Jab
Johnson & Johnson announced promising preliminary data from an independent study that evaluated the booster dose of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, Ad26.COV2.S, administered at six months after a two-dose primary regimen of Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty (BNT162b2). The study included a subset of participants in a phase II study — COV2008 — that is being sponsored by J&J and is conducted by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Data from the study demonstrated that the administration of the booster dose of J&J’s vaccine-elicited neutralizing and binding antibody levels at week four post administration to same after a booster dose of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty. Moreover, J&J’s booster dose also resulted in a greater increase in T-cell responses compared to Comirnaty.
Please note that while neutralizing antibodies help in blocking infection, T-cell destroys infected cells.
This preliminary data is also supported by an initial data from another clinical study — UK COV-BOOST — that evaluated J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine’s booster dose in participants who have received immunization with Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty in their primary vaccination regimen. Data from the UK COV-BOOST study also demonstrated an increase in both antibody and T-cell responses following J&J’s booster dose.
We note that AstraZeneca is one of the early players to market a COVID-19 vaccine in the world. However, AZN is yet to receive authorization for its vaccine in the United States. AstraZeneca produced the vaccine at cost amid the pandemic. The vaccine generated $1.05 billion in revenues for AstraZeneca in the first nine months of 2021.
This year so far, J&J’s shares have risen 1.2% compared with an increase of 12.3% for the industry.
J&J is a late entrant in the COVID-19 vaccine race. The company’s vaccine was first authorized for emergency use in the United States in February 2021. It expects $2.5 billion in revenues from the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, significantly less than Pfizer’s $36 billion from its COVID-19 vaccine in the same period.
However, J&J’s booster dose was the first to receive emergency use authorization in the United States in October for all adults. Moreover, the recent preliminary data from the phase II study supports the use of J&J’s booster dose in people who have received initial vaccination with Comirnaty for better protection.
We note that the FDA had authorized the use of mix and match or heterologous administration of the booster doses in October that allows the administration of a booster dose of any authorized COVID-19 vaccine, irrespective of the primary vaccination regimen. This authorization of heterologous administration should ease the concerns related to the use of a different booster jab than the initial regimen.
With the majority of the population in the United States having received primary vaccination, the main revenue driver for the COVID-19 vaccine makers will come from the sale of booster doses. Clinical data supporting better protection with J&J’s booster dose may help the company drive the supply of booster doses higher next year. This may result in higher additional revenues for J&J from the COVID-19 vaccine next year.
Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.
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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Funko, Bloomin' Brands, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and BioNTech highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – December 7, 2021 – Zacks Equity Research Shares of Funko, Inc. (FNKO - Free Report) as the Bull of the Day, Bloomin' Brands, Inc. (BLMN - Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Free Report) , Pfizer Inc. (PFE - Free Report) and BioNTech SE (BNTX - Free Report) .
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Bull of the Day:
So many boom-and-bust cycles have played themselves out over the last several months. We had the crazy crypto moves with Dogecoin and Shiba Innu, a hyperbolic move in high-growth tech stocks like Tesla, and a market that up until a couple weeks ago was simply untouchable. Then what happened? Perhaps a sober moment with market participants realizing how overbought the broad market was.
Eventually, the cream will rise to the top. One way of finding these stocks is by looking for companies with the strongest earnings. The Zacks Rank allows users to find these stocks. Those with the strongest Zacks Ranks have the best earnings trends. That tends to lead to long-term profits.
One such example is today’s Bull of the Day, Funko. Funko, Inc., a pop culture consumer products company, designs, sources, and distributes licensed pop culture products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers vinyl, blind-packed miniature, and action figures; plush products; accessories; apparels, such as t-shirts and hats; homewares, including drinkware, party lights and other home accessories, such as keychains, pens, and pins; and bags, purses and wallets, and board games.
Currently, Funko is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). In addition to the favorable rank, Funko enjoys a Zacks Value Style Score of B, Growth of C, and Momentum of B to help it round out with a VGM Composite Score of A. The reason for the favorable rank is the recent upside earnings estimate revisions coming from analysts. Over the last thirty days, six analysts have increased their estimates for the current year while the same number has hiked their numbers for next year. The bullish sentiment has juiced up our Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year from $1.15 to $1.26 while next year’s number is up from $1.30 to $1.38.
Bear of the Day:
There is no question that the pandemic was the straw that broke the camel’s back for several restaurants all across the US. As the world crawled out from underneath the curtain of closures, it looked like this industry was going to bounce back. However, it appears that for at least a few of these restaurants, the optimism sort of “out-kicked the coverage.” What I mean by that is, folks simply got a little too bullish about how strong the bounce-back would be.
One such stock that is not quite bouncing back as strong as the market would have liked is today’s Bear of the Day. I’m talking about Bloomin’ Brands. Bloomin' Brands, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates casual, upscale casual, and fine dining restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, U.S. and International. Its restaurant portfolio has four concepts, including Outback Steakhouse, a casual steakhouse restaurant; Carrabba's Italian Grill, a casual Italian restaurant; Bonefish Grill, a casual seafood restaurant; and Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, a contemporary steakhouse.
Currently, Bloomin’ Brands is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), although it does enjoy the rare instance of having a Zacks Value Style Score of A, Growth of A, and Momentum of B to help it round out with a VGM Composite Score of A. The Retail- Restaurants industry ranks in the Bottom 8% of our Zacks Industry Rank. The reason for the unfavorable rank is the series of negative earnings estimate revisions coming from analysts. Over the last sixty days, six analysts have cut their estimates for not only the current year but next year. The bearish moves have cut the Zacks Consensus Estimates for the current year from $2.81 to $2.62 while next year’s number is off from $2.86 to $2.53.
Additional content:
J&J Covid Booster Compares Well with Pfizer/BioNTech Jab
Johnson & Johnson announced promising preliminary data from an independent study that evaluated the booster dose of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, Ad26.COV2.S, administered at six months after a two-dose primary regimen of Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty (BNT162b2). The study included a subset of participants in a phase II study — COV2008 — that is being sponsored by J&J and is conducted by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Data from the study demonstrated that the administration of the booster dose of J&J’s vaccine-elicited neutralizing and binding antibody levels at week four post administration to same after a booster dose of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty. Moreover, J&J’s booster dose also resulted in a greater increase in T-cell responses compared to Comirnaty.
Please note that while neutralizing antibodies help in blocking infection, T-cell destroys infected cells.
This preliminary data is also supported by an initial data from another clinical study — UK COV-BOOST — that evaluated J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine’s booster dose in participants who have received immunization with Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty in their primary vaccination regimen. Data from the UK COV-BOOST study also demonstrated an increase in both antibody and T-cell responses following J&J’s booster dose.
We note that AstraZeneca is one of the early players to market a COVID-19 vaccine in the world. However, AZN is yet to receive authorization for its vaccine in the United States. AstraZeneca produced the vaccine at cost amid the pandemic. The vaccine generated $1.05 billion in revenues for AstraZeneca in the first nine months of 2021.
This year so far, J&J’s shares have risen 1.2% compared with an increase of 12.3% for the industry.
J&J is a late entrant in the COVID-19 vaccine race. The company’s vaccine was first authorized for emergency use in the United States in February 2021. It expects $2.5 billion in revenues from the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, significantly less than Pfizer’s $36 billion from its COVID-19 vaccine in the same period.
However, J&J’s booster dose was the first to receive emergency use authorization in the United States in October for all adults. Moreover, the recent preliminary data from the phase II study supports the use of J&J’s booster dose in people who have received initial vaccination with Comirnaty for better protection.
We note that the FDA had authorized the use of mix and match or heterologous administration of the booster doses in October that allows the administration of a booster dose of any authorized COVID-19 vaccine, irrespective of the primary vaccination regimen. This authorization of heterologous administration should ease the concerns related to the use of a different booster jab than the initial regimen.
With the majority of the population in the United States having received primary vaccination, the main revenue driver for the COVID-19 vaccine makers will come from the sale of booster doses. Clinical data supporting better protection with J&J’s booster dose may help the company drive the supply of booster doses higher next year. This may result in higher additional revenues for J&J from the COVID-19 vaccine next year.
Zacks Rank
J&J currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.
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.