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Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure, Apogee Enterprises, Amazon and Kohl's highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – April 30, 2018 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure (SOI - Free Report) as the Bull of the Day, Apogee Enterprises (APOG - Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and Kohl’s (KSS - Free Report) .

Here is a synopsis of all four stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and has plenty of recent positive earnings estimate revisions.  Let's take a look at those revisions and why this stock made it to a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is the Bull of the Day.

Description

Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure manufactures and sells mobile proppant management systems to unload, store, and deliver proppant at oil and natural gas well sites. The company's systems are designed for transferring large quantities of proppant to the well sites. It also provides real-time inventory management solutions for proppant mining, rail shipping, and transloading operations. SOI was founded in 2014 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Agreement

Part of the foundation of the Zacks Rank is Agreement. This basically means to all the analysts that are covering the stock see the same thing. If they do, then they are in agreement, and this is pretty much the case with SOI as there have been lots of positive revisions over the last 60 days.

Over the last 60 days, I see 4 positive earnings estimate revisions to this quarter and the next quarter as well.  I also see 5 positive earnings estimate revisions to the current year and 5 for next year as well.  That is a lot of positive increases to estimates.

Over that time horizon, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 has moved from $1.64 to $1.74.  The real move is in the 2019 numbers, which have bumped up from $2.38 to $2.63.

Postive ESP

These revisions are also coming just ahead of an earnings release.  I see the company is slated to report on May 8 and recently one analyst adjusted numbers higher.  The Zacks Earnings ESP shows +6%, which suggests that the more recent estimate is fully 6% ahead of the consensus.  

With just a few weeks before earnings, the analyst was likely very confident this was going to be a good quarter.

Options are pricing in a move of around 10% for this stock (for the options that expire following the earnings print).  With firmness in the price of oil and positive earnings estimate action, investors should take the time to give SOI a deeper drill down.

Bear of the Day:

Apogee Enterprises recently beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate but the company guided FY19 below the consensus for the year.  What followed was a host of negative earnings estimate revisions and that pushed this stock down to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) and today it is the Bear Of The Day.

Description

Apogee Enterprises makes glass products and services in the United States, Canada, and Brazil.  Apogee Enterprises, Inc. was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Guidance

On April 12, the company reported EPS of $0.96 and that was well ahead of the Wall Street estimate of $0.76.  Revenues of $353M were below the estimate of $363M.

Wall Street did not like the guidance for FY 19, as the company said that they expect $3.43-$3.63 in EPS when the consensus was calling for $3.89.

This set off a chain of negative earnings estimate revisions and that pushed the stock the lowest Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

Estimate Revisions

30 Days ago, the Zacks Consensus Estimate was sitting at $0.74.  Following the report, the number has slipped to $0.44.  That is a big move lower.

Next quarter also saw estimates slip to $0.76 from the previous level of $0.87.

Negative estimate revisions are the core reason for the move to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

There Is Hope

Engage Capital disclosed a 6% active position in the stock on April 17 and there were rumors that Elliot planned to take a stake in the stock too. 

These two activist investors helped support the stock as it dropped following the report.  Other activists like Jana Partners helped push sales of big investments like Whole Foods which was sold to Amazon.

Additional content:

A Look at Amazon’s (AMZN - Free Report) Physical Retail & Subscription Growth

Shares of Amazon surged over 4% on Friday to touch a brand new all-time high one day after the e-commerce powerhouse posted strong first quarter results. But while much attention has been paid to Amazon’s massive bottom line beat and continued online sales expansion, let’s dive into the company’s physical retail growth along with its booming subscriber business.

Amazon posted adjusted Q1 earnings of $3.27 per share, which crushed our Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.22 per share. Meanwhile, the company’s overall first quarter revenues surged 43% to $51.04 billion. This also beat our $50.17 billion consensus estimate.

Investors should note that Amazon Web Services, or AWS, soared 49% from the year-ago period to $5.44 billion—topping our estimate. Amazon also posted online sales of $26.94 billion and third-party seller revenues of $9.27 billion.

With that said, two other important Amazon growth areas deserve some more attention.

Physical Stores

The company reported first quarter physical stores sales of $4.26 billion. This is only the third period that Amazon reported such revenues, but its sales soared from $1.28 billion in the third quarter of 2017.

Amazon bought Whole Foods almost a year ago for $13.4 billion, marking the biggest move in the company’s effort to expand its physical retail presence. And Whole Foods revenues, from its 479 stores, account for a large portion of these physical stores sales. But Amazon has also expanded its retail footprint in other ways.

Amazon opened its first bookstore in November 2015. The company now has 15 total Amazon Books locations throughout the U.S., from California to New York. Amazon plans to open three more new locations soon.

The e-commerce giant also has an array of pop-up stores throughout the country. Amazon sets up these temporary shops in malls, Whole Foods, and Kohl’s stores in order to sell different Amazon products, including Kindle and Echo devices.

Amazon’s physical retail revenue also included the company’s unique, no checkout Amazon Go store in Seattle. Cleary, Amazon is slowly expanding its brick-and-mortar presence, with the nascent unit accounting for roughly 8.3% of total first quarter revenue.

Subscription Services

Moving on, Amazon’s subscription services unit is made up primarily of annual and monthly fees associated with Amazon Prime memberships, audiobook and digital music fees, as well as all other non-AWS subscriptions services. Just last week, CEO Jeff Bezos publicly revealed for the first time that its Prime program currently boasts 100 million paying members worldwide.

Amazon’s quarterly subscription revenues surged 60% from $1.94 billion in the year-ago period to hit $3.10 billion. The big climb was larger than both AWS and online sales, and can be attributed to Amazon Prime’s expansion.

Subscription Services are also set to get a boost after Amazon announced a planned rate hike on its first quarter earnings call that will see its yearly Prime membership fees jump from $99 to $119, starting on May 11.

Amazon’s latest rate hike comes only a few months after it raised Prime's monthly membership from $10.99 per month to $12.99 per month.

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About the Bull and Bear of the Day

Every day, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research select two stocks that are likely to outperform (Bull) or underperform (Bear) the markets over the next 3-6 months.

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 analyst 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.

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