Friday, May 19, 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 NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), Cisco, Inc. (CSCO) and Philip Morris International Inc. (PM). 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 >>>

NVIDIA shares have outperformed the Zacks Semiconductor - General industry over the past year (+89.9% vs. +42.4%). The company is gaining from strong growth of artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and accelerated computing, which is boosting its Compute & Networking revenues. The stock was up big following the last quarterly release on February 22nd and Nvidia fans will be hoping for a repeat perforance it comes out with quarterly numbers this coming Wednesday (May 24th).

A surge in Hyperscale demand and a solid uptake of artificial intelligence-based smart cockpit infotainment solutions are acting as tailwinds. Collaboration with Mercedes-Benz and Audi is likely to advance its presence in autonomous vehicles and other automotive electronics space.

However, NVDA’s near-term prospects look gloomy due to weakening demand for chips used in gaming and data center end markets. While macroeconomic headwinds are impacting gaming and data center chip demand, higher channel inventory levels are hurting chip prices.

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

Shares of Cisco have modestly outperformed the Zacks Computer - Networking industry over the past year (+16.1% vs. +15.5%). The company’s end-to-end security is benefiting from strong demand for Cisco’s unified threat management and zero trust offerings.

Cisco witnessed strong demand for its products, including the Catalyst 9000 family, Meraki, and Nexus 9000 offerings. Expanding growth opportunities for low-power-consuming technologies, including IoT, Silicon One and Power over Ethernet bodes well for Cisco. Its investments across security business, focusing on cloud-based offerings, is expected to drive growth in the long haul.

Cisco now expects modest revenue growth in fourth quarter. Earnings is expected to grow at a higher rate than revenues driven by gross margin expansion and disciplined expense management.

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

Shares of Philip Morris have declined -1.9% over the past six months against the Zacks Tobacco industry’s decline of -4.5%. The company has been battling cost-related headwinds and expects certain margin pressures in the first half of 2023. Also, soft cigarette shipment volumes and volatile currency movements have been concerns. In 2023, the total international industry volume is estimated to decline by 1-2%, excluding China and United States.

Nevertheless, Philip Morris has been gaining from its pricing power. Higher pricing variance was an upside to the company’s performance in the first quarter of 2023 and is likely to drive performance in the full year.

A focus on reduced risk products, especially IQOS, has been working well for the company, which is witnessing a continued product mix shift from cigarettes to smoke-free products. These upsides are likely to boost organic revenues in 2023.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Synopsys, Inc. (SNPS), BCE Inc. (BCE) and Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (AMP).

Director of Research

Sheraz Mian

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>>>