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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: AT&T, Goldman Sachs, Sanofi, General Mills and Discovery

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – March 16, 2018 – 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 AT&T (T - Free Report) , Goldman Sachs (GS - Free Report) , Sanofi (SNY - Free Report) , General Mills (GIS - Free Report) and Discovery .

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Research Reports for AT&T, Goldman Sachs and Sanofi

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 AT&T, Goldman Sachs and Sanofi. 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 >>>

AT&T’s shares have decreased -12.8% in the last one year, underperforming the Zacks Wireless National industry's fall of -11.5%. Despite the disappointing price performance, the Zacks analyst is optimistic about AT&T’s wireless growth prospects ahead of the launch of standards-based mobile 5G services and the FirstNet project.

Further, another major positive is AT&T's net gain of 4.1 million total wireless subscribers, with 2.7 million in the United States (driven by connected devices, postpaid phones and prepaid) and 1.3 million in Mexico, in fourth-quarter 2017. Despite cord-cutting, AT&T gained 368,000 DIRECTV NOW connections in the final quarter of 2017.

However, AT&T continues to struggle in the competitive U.S. wireless market. Other challenges like loss in access lines and union issues continue to hurt the stock. Regulatory hurdles for the pending AT&T-Time Warner deal have also become a major issue.

(You can read the full research report on AT&T here >>>).

Shares of Goldman Sachs have gained +16.2% in the six months, underperforming the +25.5% gain of the Zacks Investment Banking industry. However, the company boasts an impressive earnings surprise history. It has surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three out of the trailing four quarters.

Though several issues, including sluggish global economic growth and lower client activity levels with weak fixed income trading revenues, remain near-to-medium-term headwinds, the Zacks analyst thinks the company’s well-diversified business and focus to capitalize on growth opportunities through strategic moves will continue to strengthen the overall business.

Cost-control measures are commendable. Additionally, steady capital-deployment activities have boosted investors' confidence.

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

Sanofi’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry year to date, declining -5.9% vs. -0.1%. However, Sanofi has several new products in its portfolio and candidates in its pipeline that can contribute to long-term growth. Particularly, the Zacks analyst is optimistic about sales prospects of Dupixent, which could prove to be an important growth driver.

Meanwhile, the recently announced acquisitions of Ablynx and Bioverativ are expected to strengthen Sanofi’s position in the rare blood disorders market. However, Sanofi’s Diabetes franchise is under significant pressure with key product, Lantus facing increasing competitive pressure at the payor level and the presence of biosimilar competition in several European markets and Japan. 

Other headwinds include generic competition for many drugs and slower-than-expected uptake of new products like Praluent. Meanwhile, the performance of the Consumer Healthcare franchise was soft n 2017.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include General Mills and Discovery.

Can Hackers Put Money INTO Your Portfolio?

Earlier this month, credit bureau Equifax announced a massive data breach affecting 2 out of every 3 Americans. The cybersecurity industry is expanding quickly in response to this and similar events. But some stocks are better investments than others.

Zacks has just released Cybersecurity! An Investor’s Guide to help Zacks.com readers make the most of the $170 billion per year investment opportunity created by hackers and other threats. It reveals 4 stocks worth looking into right away.

Download the new report now>>

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1 Stock of the Day pick for free.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons.

Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News

Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has nearly tripled the market from 1988 through 2015. Its average gain has been a stellar +26% per year.See these high-potential stocks free >>.

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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.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) - free report >>

Sanofi (SNY) - free report >>

AT&T Inc. (T) - free report >>

General Mills, Inc. (GIS) - free report >>