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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Visa, Abbott Laboratories, Salesforce, Wells Fargo and Centene

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 25, 2022 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Visa Inc. (V - Free Report) , Abbott Laboratories (ABT - Free Report) , Salesforce, Inc. (CRM - Free Report) , Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC - Free Report) and Centene Corp. (CNC - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Research Reports for Visa, Abbott and Salesforce

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 Visa Inc., Abbott Laboratories and Salesforce, Inc. 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 >>>

Visa shares are down -2% in the year-to-date period, outperforming Mastercard's -5.2% decline and the S&P 500 index's -22.7% drop. Driving this positive outperformance is the company's favorable long-term growth outlook, which reflects a combination of attractive buyouts and alliances and investments in technology.

A shift in payments to the digital mode is a boon. The coronavirus vaccine rollouts and the gradual revival of consumer confidence will keep driving spending, expanding business volumes in turn. Backed by its strong cash position, it remains committed to boost its shareholder value. Its balance sheet strength is commendable.

However, high operating expenses stress the margins. Ramped-up client incentives will dent the top line. Its declining cash volume from the Asia Pacific bothers. Its volumes will likely suffer due to the Russia-Ukraine situation.

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

Abbott shares have declined -10.1% over the past year against the Zacks Medical sector's decline of -17.5% and the S&P 500 index's -16.9% pullback.

While Abbott is faced with the negative repercussions of a voluntary recall of certain powder formulae produced at one of its U.S. plants, it remins well positioned for robust organic sales growth across core operating segments, barring Nutrition.

The Diabetes Care business should continue to benefit from the growing sales of sensor-based continuous glucose monitoring system, FreeStyle Libre. The zacks analyst is particularly upbeat about the receipt of FDA clearance for the company's FreeStyle Libre 3 system in May 2022. Over the past year,

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

Salesforce shares have enjoyed a nice bounce back in recent days, but the stock is still down -28.5% in the year-to-date period vs. -38.8% for the Zacks Tech sector and -22.7% for the S&P 500 index. The biggest worry weighing on the stock is uncertainty about technology spending that remains a headwind for the entire software group in the current uncertain macro backdrop. Also weighing on near-term profitability are unfavorable currency fluctuations and increasing investments in international expansions and data centers.

However, the company is benefiting from a robust demand environment as customers are undergoing a major digital transformation. The rapid adoption of its cloud-based solutions is driving demand for its products. Salesforce's sustained focus on introducing more aligned products as per customer needs is driving its top-line.

Continued deal wins in the international market is another growth driver. Furthermore, the recent acquisition of Slack would position the company to be a leader in enterprise team collaboration solution space and better compete with Microsoft's Teams product

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Wells Fargo & Co. and Centene Corp.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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