Friday May 26, 2017

Today's Research Daily features new research reports on 16 major stocks, including Visa (V), General Electric Company (GE) and GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK). You can see all of today’s research reports here >>>

Visa shares have outperformed the Zacks Financial Transaction Services industry as well as MasterCard in the year-to-date period (Visa is up +21.7% vs. +17.8% gain for MA and +16.8% for the industry). Driving this momentum is the acknowledgement that Visa's brand, global network, and leading market share position it to be a key beneficiary of the secular global shift to electronic transactions. Initial concerns about a changing competitive landscape, large on account of new payment options, have also started receding. The company's strong results in recent quarters reflect this favorable backdrop. On the flip side, forex volatility, increased client incentives and global economic uncertainty are some of the headwinds (You can read the full research report on Visa here >>>).

General Electric shares have been laggards for a while now; the stock has underperformed the S&P 500 index in the year-to-date (-13.2% vs. +8.2%), trailing one year, 2 years or even 5-year periods. This has rattled long-term investors and made them skeptical of management plans to turn the conglomerate around. The stock was down following the Q1 earnings release and management's cautious commentary about the business outlook since then hasn't helped matters much. The Baker Hughes purchase should close soon, but management has been less than enthusiastic about that business' near-term outlook despite indications that activity levels may have bottomed in the oil patch already. As gloomy as all of this looks, we have acknowledge the limited downside risks at this stage, given the very attractive dividend (currently yielding a juicy 3.5%) and very reasonable valuation. The stock has historically traded in-line with the S&P 500 index, but currently trades at a big discount to the index. (You can read the full research report on General Electric here >>>).

GlaxoSmithKline shares have performed in-line with the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry over the year-to-date period, gaining +10.7% versus the industry’s +10.7% increase. Persistent challenges like stiff competition, genericization and pricing pressure along with slowing growth in emerging markets have been impacting the company’s performance. In particular, pricing dynamics and competitive pressure are hurting sales of its top-selling drug Advair. On the other hand, the Zacks analyst pointed out that performance of its new products as well as of those acquired from Novartis has been encouraging. Glaxo reported mixed Q1 results with earnings meeting the mark and sales beating the same (You can read the full research report on GlaxoSmithKline here >>>).

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Abbott Laboratories (ABT).

More Stock News: 8 Companies Verge on Apple-Like Run                                                              

Did you miss Apple's 9X stock explosion after they launched their iPhone in 2007? Now 2017 looks to be a pivotal year to get in on another emerging technology expected to rock the market. Demand could soar from almost nothing to $42 billion by 2025. Reports suggest it could save 10 million lives per decade which could in turn save $200 billion in U.S. healthcare costs.

A bonus Zacks Special Report names this breakthrough and the 8 best stocks to exploit it. Like Apple in 2007, these companies are already strong and coiling for potential mega-gains. Click to see them right now >>

Sheraz Mian

Director of Research

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>>>