Friday, February 7, 2020

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 Alphabet (GOOGL), Roche Holding (RHHBY) and Amgen (AMGN). 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 >>>

Alphabet’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Internet Services industry in the past six months (+21.8% vs. +16.3%). The Zacks analyst believes that Google’s strong focus on innovation of AI techniques and the home automation space should aid business growth in the long term.

Alphabet reported weak fourth-quarter earnings due to declining search advertising growth and lower-than-expected YouTube sales. Also, heavy investment in cloud computing and hardware businesses negatively impacted the results. However, Google’s robust mobile search is a positive.

Notably, it has agreed to acquire Fitbit for roughly $2.1 billion. This deal will likely help the company to accelerate innovation in the wearables category. However, the company’s growing expenses, litigation issues and competition might hurt profitability. 

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

Shares of Roche have gained +28.7% over the past year against the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry's rise of +13.5%. The Zacks analyst believes that Roche’s dominant position in the breast cancer space continues to boost performance on label expansion of drugs.

Roche’s performance in 2019 was impressive, propelled by solid sales of new drugs. Strong growth of Ocrevus, Perjeta, Tecentriq and Hemlibra countered biosimilar competition for Herceptin, MabThera and Avastin. Particularly, MS drug Ocrevus witnessed strong growth on increased demand.

Also, label expansion of blockbuster immune-oncology drug Tecentriq into additional indications is a positive. The recent Spark acquisition will boost Roche’s presence in the gene therapy space as well. However, most of the legacy drugs are facing biosimilar competition. Additionally, pipeline setbacks are concerns as well.

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

Amgen’s shares have gained +9.9% over the past three months against the Zacks Biomedical and Genetics industry's rise of +4.7%. The Zacks analyst believes that while Amgen’s growth products like Prolia, Evenity, Repatha, Aimovig, Otezla and biosimilars will drive sales, increasing competition for its legacy products will continue to hurt the same this year.

Amgen boasts of a strong biosimilars portfolio, which can drive long-term growth. Amgen is also progressing with its pipeline while regularly pursuing “external opportunities” such as the acquisition of Otezla and the recently acquired stake in China's BeiGene.

Amgen also expects several important clinical data readouts from its innovative pipeline in 2020. However, pricing and competitive pressure are concerns.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include General Electric (GE), Sony (SNE) and Biogen (BIIB).

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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>>>