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Research Daily

Friday, April 23, 2021

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 Facebook (FB), Cisco Systems (CSCO), and Chevron (CVX). 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 >>>

Shares of Facebook have underperformed the S&P 500 in the last one-year period (+57.1% vs. +66%). The Zacks analyst believes Facebook is benefiting from steady user growth across all regions, particularly Asia Pacific.

Increased engagement for its products like Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger is another major growth driver. Meanwhile, advertising revenues were driven by a strong holiday shopping season for retail that benefited from the ongoing shift to online commerce.

Facebook expects year-over-year growth rates in total revenues to remain stable or modestly accelerate on a sequential basis in the first and second quarters of 2021. However, the company expects changes made by Apple in its iOS 14 platform to limit the latter’s ability to track user-activity trend.

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

Cisco’s shares have gained +37.5% over the last six months against the Zacks Computer Networking industry’s gain of +36%. The Zacks analyst believes that Cisco is well-positioned to benefit from robust adoption of identity and access, advanced threat and unified threat management security solutions amid high growth in Internet traffic.

Moreover, strong demand for Catalyst 9000 family of switches amid expected increase in enterprise IT spending, and recovery across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), is encouraging.

Nonetheless, weakness in the enterprise end markets and coronavirus crisis-led supply chain constraints, is likely to weigh on revenues, at least in the near term. Further, weak demand for servers, remains a major concern.

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

Shares of Chevron have gained +11.8% in the past three months against the Zacks Integrated Oil industry’s gain of +8.2%. The Zacks analyst believes that despite struggling with depressed demand stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, it has reiterated its commitment to its dividend on a number of occasions.

Meanwhile, Chevron’s existing project pipeline is among the best in the industry, thanks to its premier position in the lucrative Permian Basin. Its Noble Energy takeover has expanded its footprint in the region and the DJ Basin along with the addition of cash-generating offshore assets in Israel.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Mondelez International (MDLZ), Chubb (CB) and Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA).

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In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 best buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2021?

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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>>>

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