Thursday, June 15, 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 Linde plc (LIN), S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) and AT&T Inc. (T). 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 >>>

Linde shares have outperformed the Zacks Chemical - Specialty industry (+29% vs. +13.7%) as well as the broader market (+29% vs. +19.3% for the S&P 500) over the past year reflecting robust demand for its industrial gases. The company’s primary products in industrial gases include oxygen, which is used as life support in hospitals.

Linde has long-term contracts with on-site customers backed by minimum purchase requirements, thereby securing stable cashflows. In the profitable industrial gas market, the merger of Praxair and Linde has created an efficient player with considerable size advantages.

However, the cost of sales continues to increase, hurting the firm’s bottom line. Also, high leverage may limit its financial flexibility. The firm has mostly been paying a lower dividend yield than the industry’s composite stocks over the past two years.

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

Shares of S&P Global have outperformed the Zacks Business - Information Services industry over the past year (+26.1% vs. +15.4%). The company remains well poised to gain from growing demand for business information services. Buyouts help innovate, increase differentiated content and develop new products.

Effective management execution has helped it generate solid cash flow which is utilized for growth initiatives. Dividend payments and share buybacks boost investors confidence and positively impact earnings per share.

However, S&P Global remains vulnerable to proceedings, investigations and inquiries with respect to the ratings provided, leading to legal charges, damages or fines. Growth initiatives, higher compensations and incentives raise the company's expenses. Decreasing current ratio is not desirable as it indicates that the company may have problems meeting its short-term debt obligations.

(You can read the full research report on S&P Global here >>>)

Shares of AT&T have declined -11.4% over the past year against the Zacks Wireless National industry’s decline of -12.1%. The company is facing a steady decline in linear TV subscribers and legacy services. As the company tries to woo customers with healthy discounts, freebies and cash credits, margin pressures tend to escalate. This is likely to affect its growth potential to some extent. High debt burden is also worrisome.

However, AT&T is focused on business transformation efforts to augment operational efficiency and facilitate optimum resource utilization to enhance value and lower operating costs.

A customer-centric business model alongside a lower churn rate and higher-tier unlimited plans is providing robust growth in its postpaid wireless business. An integrated fiber expansion strategy is expected to improve the broadband connectivity for both enterprise and consumer markets, while steady 5G deployments are likely to boost end-user experience.

(You can read the full research report on AT&T here >>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Oracle Corporation (ORCL), HCA Healthcare, Inc. (HCA) and Moody's Corporation (MCO).

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>>>