Tuesday, May 9, 2023

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 Eli Lilly and Company (LLY), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS). 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 >>>

Eli Lilly shares have outperformed the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry over the past year (+53.4% vs. +17.4%) reflecting the company solid portfolio of core drugs in diabetes, autoimmune diseases and cancer. Its revenue growth is being driven by higher demand for drugs like Trulicity, Taltz and others.

Eli Lilly is regularly adding promising new pipeline assets through business development deals. Lilly expects to launch four new medicines by 2023 end with Mounjaro for type II diabetes and cancer drug Jaypirca already launched. Mounjaro sales are already benefiting from strong demand trends.

However, the CRL for donanemab will probably delay the potential launch of the candidate. Generic competition for several drugs, rising pricing pressure in the United States and some international markets are some top-line headwinds.

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

Shares of Verizon Communications have outperformed the Zacks Wireless National industry over the past six months (+1.4% vs. -4.1%). The company is witnessing significant 5G adoption and fixed wireless broadband momentum. It plans to accelerate the availability of the 5G Ultra Wideband network with C-Band deployment, focusing on 5G mobility, nationwide broadband and mobile edge compute.

Customer-focused planning, disciplined engineering and continued network upgrades will likely augment its market position. However, its wireline division is struggling with persistent losses in access lines owing to stiff competitive pressures.

It has reiterated its earlier soft guidance for 2023 due to a challenging macroeconomic environment. Hefty expenses on promotions and lucrative discounts to attract customers are likely to hurt its profitability.

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

Shares of United Parcel Service have gained +2.1% over the past six months against the Zacks Transportation - Air Freight and Cargo industry’s gain of +10.4%. The company is looking to drive growth in this uncertain scenario by improving efficiencies. Efforts to reward its shareholders through dividends and buybacks bode well for UPS. The company's strong free cash flow generating ability pleases us and supports its shareholder-friendly activities.

UPS anticipates making dividend payments of $5.4 billion apart from buying back shares worth $3 billion in 2023. However, United Parcel Service now expects revenues in 2023 to be around $97 billion. The new forecast is at the low end of the previous outlook and much lower than 2022's actual figure. According to the Zacks analyst estimate, it is currently pegged at $96.98 billion.

The gloomy forecast is mainly due to weak consumer sales. Notably, average daily volume declined 5.4% in first-quarter 2023 at the U.S. Domestic package segment. The same declined 6.2% at the International Package division.

(You can read the full research report on United Parcel Service here >>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Novartis AG (NVS), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) and The Cigna Group (CI).

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>>>