Wednesday, June 21, 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 Nike, Inc. (NKE), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT). 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 >>>

Nike’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Shoes and Retail Apparel industry over the past year (+11.8% vs. -11.2%). The company’s results gained from the Consumer Direct Acceleration strategy, compelling product innovation and solid online show.

Nike witnessed double-digit revenue growth across North America, EMEA and APLA. For fiscal 2023, it expects revenue growth in the high-single digits, up from the prior mentioned mid-single-digit growth and in line with the Zacks analyst estimate of 8.6% growth.

However, shares of Nike have lagged the industry in the past year. Nike witnessed decline in gross margin due to higher markdowns, increased freight and logistics costs, elevated input costs and currency headwinds. Also, elevated SG&A expenses are concerning.

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

Shares of Morgan Stanley have outperformed the Zacks Financial - Investment Bank industry over the past year (+20.5% vs. +9.9%). The company’s restructuring initiatives to become less dependent on capital-markets-driven revenue sources, inorganic growth efforts, focus on corporate lending and higher interest rates, are expected to support the top line.

Supported by a solid capital position, the company's capital deployment activities seem sustainable. However, the ambiguity of the performance of the capital markets remains a headwind and is expected to affect the Institutional Securities segment’s revenue prospects. Elevated expenses due to investments in franchise and inflation are likely to hamper profits.

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

Lockheed Martin’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Aerospace - Defense industry over the past year (+13.4% vs. +3.8%). The company has a strong backlog which boost its long-term growth. It remains the largest U.S. defense contractor that has a steady order inflow from its leveraged presence in the Army, Air Force, Navy and IT programs.

The U.S. budgetary provisions end to immensely boost this defense prime's business. International sales to aid its long-term growth. However, America and Turkey's tiff as a result of the latter accepting Russian products may hurt its component supply from Turkey.

Lockheed Martin is facing performance issues concerning some of its products, which may hurt its results. An uncertainty revolving around the possible sanction by China on Lockheed might impact the latter.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL), Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (CP) and Aon plc (AON).

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>>>