Friday, December 30, 2016

Today's Research Daily features new research reports on 16 major stocks, including Dow Chemical (DOW), Alphabet (GOOGL) and AT&T (T).

Shares of Buy rated Dow Chemical have gained 9.5% over the past three months, outperforming the Zacks categorized Chemicals-Diversified industry, which has gained 7.4% over the same period. The Zacks analyst likes the company’s sustained strong growth fundamentals in its core end-use markets, which is believed to have played a major role in boosting the company over the past few months.

Dow should continue to benefit from its cost-cutting and aggressive portfolio management actions. The company is also moving forward with its planned mega-merger with DuPont, which is expected to create significant synergies. (You can read the full research report on Dow Chemical here.)

Alphabet’s shares have increased 3.1% year to date, outperforming the Zacks Internet-Services industry, which has rose 2.3% during the same time frame. Alphabet has shown good execution to date, more or less maintaining its dominant share in a competitive, fast-growing search market. The Zacks analyst likes its focus on innovation, strategic acquisitions and Android OS, which should continue to generate strong cash flows.

However, growing competition and legal hassles remained as major concerns. Also, the tech giant is speculated to witness escalation in costs following significant investment in mobile, cloud, devices and digital goods. (You can read the full research report on Alphabet here.)

Shares of AT&T have surged 24% year to date, slightly underperforming the Zacks Wireless National sector, which has gained 24.4% over the same period. AT&T operates in a saturated wireless market where spectrum crunch is a big issue. Moreover, loss in access lines, stringent regulatory measures and union issues are major headwinds.

However, the Zacks analyst likes the launch of its DirecTV Now, which enabled the company to foray into the OTT space. Moreover, if the acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T goes through, the combined entity will become a major player in the consolidated telecom-media space. Collaboration with Intel Corporation will also develop new software-centric network technologies. (You can read the full research report on AT&T here.)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Apple (AAPL), Franklin Resources (BEN) and T-Mobile (TMUS).

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Mark Vickery

Senior Editor

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