Friday, July 22, 2022

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 Visa Inc. (V), Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and Salesforce, Inc. (CRM). 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 >>>

Visa shares are down -2% in the year-to-date period, outperforming Mastercard's -5.2% decline and the S&P 500 index's -22.7% drop. Driving this positive outperformance is the company’s favorable long-term growth outlook, which reflects a combination of attractive buyouts and alliances and investments in technology.

A shift in payments to the digital mode is a boon. The coronavirus vaccine rollouts and the gradual revival of consumer confidence will keep driving spending, expanding business volumes in turn. Backed by its strong cash position, it remains committed to boost its shareholder value. Its balance sheet strength is commendable.

However, high operating expenses stress the margins. Ramped-up client incentives will dent the top line. Its declining cash volume from the Asia Pacific bothers. Its volumes will likely suffer due to the Russia-Ukraine situation.

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

Abbott shares have declined -10.1% over the past year against the Zacks Medical sector's decline of -17.5% and the S&P 500 index's -16.9% pullback.

While Abbott is faced with the negative repercussions of a voluntary recall of certain powder formulae produced at one of its U.S. plants, it remins well positioned for robust organic sales growth across core operating segments, barring Nutrition.

The Diabetes Care business should continue to benefit from the growing sales of sensor-based continuous glucose monitoring system, FreeStyle Libre. The zacks analyst is particularly upbeat about the receipt of FDA clearance for the company’s FreeStyle Libre 3 system in May 2022. Over the past year,

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

Salesforce shares have enjoyed a nice bounce back in recent days, but the stock is still down -28.5% in the year-to-date period vs. -38.8% for the Zacks Tech sector and -22.7% for the S&P 500 index. The biggest worry weighing on the stock is uncertainty about technology spending that remains a headwind for the entire software group in the current uncertain macro backdrop. Also weighing on near-term profitability are unfavorable currency fluctuations and increasing investments in international expansions and data centers.

However, the company is benefiting from a robust demand environment as customers are undergoing a major digital transformation. The rapid adoption of its cloud-based solutions is driving demand for its products. Salesforce’s sustained focus on introducing more aligned products as per customer needs is driving its top-line.

Continued deal wins in the international market is another growth driver. Furthermore, the recent acquisition of Slack would position the company to be a leader in enterprise team collaboration solution space and better compete with Microsoft’s Teams product

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Wells Fargo & Company (WFC), Intuit Inc. (INTU), and Centene Corporation (CNC).

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>>>