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Research Daily

Kalyan Nandy

Top Analyst Reports: Mastercard, AbbVie, Twenty-First Century Fox & More

MA SCHW ABBV FOXA FTV

Trades from $3

Monday, August 13, 2018

The Zacks Research Daily presents the best research output of our analyst team. Today's Research Daily features updated research reports on 16 major stocks, including Mastercard (MA), AbbVie (ABBV) and Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA). These research reports have been hand-picked from roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.

You can see all of today’s research reports here >>>

Mastercard’s shares have increased +54.5% over the past year, significantly outperforming the Zacks Financial Transaction Services industry’s rally of +32.8%. The company's earnings beat expectations and grew year over year. Strong results were primarily aided by higher switched transactions, increase in cross-border and gross dollar volume, and gains from acquisitions. An increase in rebates and incentives was a partial dampener. The Zacks analyst thinks the company is poised for growth, given its solid market position, ongoing expansion and digital initiatives plus significant opportunities from the secular shift toward electronic payments. The buyouts of VocaLink and NuData Security complement efforts to participate in new payment flows, and enhance safety and security offerings. Consensus estimates for the company's 2018 and 2019 earnings have been revised upward over the last 30 days. However, escalating costs, and higher incentives and rewards could keep its bottom line under pressure.

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

Shares of AbbVie have lost -1% year to date versus the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry's rally of +2.4%. However, AbbVie beat estimates for earnings and sales in the second quarter. It also raised its earnings expectations for 2018 for the third time this year. AbbVie’s key drug, Humira has been performing well based on strong demand trends despite new competition. Moreover, Imbruvica has multibillion dollar potential and AbbVie is exploring the possibility of label expansion into solid tumors and autoimmune diseases. Mavyret’s launch has also been stronger than expected. Moreover, AbbVie has an impressive late-stage pipeline with launch of several products with multibillion-dollar potential expected in the near term. AbbVie expects to launch more than 20 new products or line extensions of marketed drugs before Humira biosimilar competition begins in the United States in 2023. The Zacks analyst expects the potential biosimilar competition to Humira in Europe this year to be an overhang.

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

Twenty-First Century Fox’s shares have increased +31.7% year to date, outperforming the Zacks Film and Television industry's rally of +19.7%. Twenty-First Century Fox’s top and bottom line for fourth-quarter fiscal 2018 increased substantially year over year. The impressive top-line growth was primarily attributable to increasing affiliate and advertising revenues from the Cable Network Programming and Television segments as well as improving content revenues at the Filmed Entertainment segment. The company continues to benefit from rise in retransmission and robust advertising demand for its live content and entertainment product. However, increasing expenses in the Cable Networking Programming and the Television segment is a headwind. Additionally, the company recently announced an “increased recommended pre-conditional cash” offer for Sky in an aim to compete with Comcast. The Zacks analyst thinks a prolonged fight over Sky can dampen Fox’s growth prospects.

(You can read the full research report on Twenty-First Century Fox here >>>).

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Schwab (SCHW), Fortive (FTV) and Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN).

Wall Street’s Next Amazon

Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius.

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Note: Our Director of Research 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>>>

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