Monday, August 30, 2021

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 The Coca-Cola Company (KO), Danaher Corp. (DHR) and Medtronic plc (MDT). 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 >>>

Shares of Coca-Cola have outperformed the Zacks Beverages - Soft drinks industry over the past year (+12.4% vs. +11.8%). The Zacks analyst believes that shares of Coca-Cola outpaced the industry in the past year, thanks to its robust earnings surprise trend that continued in second-quarter 2021. This marked the seventh straight quarter of earnings beats and its second consecutive sales beat.

The company’s top line bounced back from the decline witnessed in the prior-year quarter, mainly owing to the increased consumer mobility and reopening of economies in several regions, which led to increased away-from-home channel sales. Revenues reflected gains from improved price/mix, an increase in concentrate sales and higher unit case volume.

The company is poised to gain from accelerating investments to expand its digital presence. However, the company witnessed pressures from higher supply chain costs, including transportation and commodity costs. It witnessed higher marketing spends compared with the prior-year quarter.

(You can read the full research report on Coca-Cola here >>>)

Danaher shares have gained +24.6% over the last three months, against the Zacks Diversified Operations industry’s gain of +5.5%. The Zacks analyst believes that the company is poised to gain from Danaher Business System (“DBS”), the policy of rewarding shareholders through dividend payments, synergistic benefits from acquired assets (with 1% contribution to sales growth in second-quarter 2021) and investment in product innovation in the quarters ahead.

The company anticipates core revenue growth in the mid-to-high teens for the third quarter of 2021 and in the high teens for 2021. However, a rise in costs and expenses can be concerning for the company. In the past 60 days, its earnings estimates have been increased for the third quarter of 2021, 2021 and 2022.

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

Shares of Medtronic have outperformed the Zacks Medical - Products industry over the past three months (+5.7% vs. +1.5%). In fact, Medtronic’s first-quarter fiscal 2022 earnings and revenues were ahead of the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. Aside from Diabetes, every operating segment and geography registered strong year-over-year growth on an organic basis.

The Zacks analyst believes that the results reflected a strong recovery from the impact of the pandemic on elective procedures with most of Medtronic businesses finishing at or above pre-COVID levels. This reflected solid execution and continued procedure volume recovery. The quarter’s gross and operating margins showed stupendous improvement on a year-over-year basis. The increase in the lower-end of Medtronic’s fiscal 2022 EPS guidance buoys optimism.

On the flip side, the company’s performance got dented by deferred procedures due to the emergence of Delta variant in several geographies including the United States.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS), Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER) and Ford Motor Company (F).

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>>>