Thursday, October 31, 2019

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 Citigroup (C), Novo Nordisk (NVO) and BP (BP). 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 >>>

Citigroup’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Major Regional Banks industry year to date (40.2% vs. 24.3%). The Zacks analyst believes that third-quarter results reflected revenue strength, along with rising loan and deposit balance.

Also, escalated investment banking revenues and reduced volumes and client activity levels were recorded in the quarter. Citigroup’s streamlining efforts, along with strategic investments in core business, bode well for the long term. Also, a declining cost base will support bottom-line improvement.

Citigroup's steady capital-deployment activities are also commendable depicting a strong capital position. However, pending litigation issues might keep legal expenses elevated. Further, decline in fee income is another concern for the company.

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

Shares of Novo Nordisk have gained 13.3% in the past six months against the Zacks Biotech industry’s rise of 4.3%. The Zacks analyst believes that solid performances from Tresiba, Victoza, Ozempic, Xultophy and Saxenda have driven the company’s sales in the year so far.

Label expansion of Victoza continues to boost performance.  Ozempic, the company’s once-weekly GLP-1, continues to gain market share. The FDA recently approved semaglutide in tablet form under the brand name, Rybelsus. The company continues to evaluate the candidate for multiple indications.

However, lower realized prices in the Unites States, loss of exclusivity for products in hormone replacement therapy and intensifying competition within the diabetes and biopharmaceuticals markets will adversely impact sales going forward. 

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

BP’s shares have lost 1.4% over the past three months against the Zacks International Integrated Oil industry’s fall of 1.9%. The Zacks analyst believes that BP has been gaining from a strong portfolio of upstream projects.

Since 2016, BP has placed 23 key upstream developments online, which will help the British energy giant boost production by 900 thousand barrel of oil equivalent per day (MBOE/D) by 2021. In fact, production from these key projects has helped the integrated energy major report better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter. Moreover, the company is strongly committed toward returning cash to its shareholders.

However, the 2010 oil spill incident in the BP-operated Macondo Prospect is still affecting the firm. Although BP has cleared the huge litigation expenses related to the spill, it had to divest some of its best operating properties. Also, the company expects refining margins in the December quarter of 2019 to drop sequentially owing to continued turnaround activities.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include salesforce.com (CRM), Honeywell International (HON) and TC Energy (TRP).

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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>>>