Thursday, March 15, 2018

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 (T), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Sanofi (SNY). 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 (GIS), Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and Discovery (DISCA).

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>>

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>>>