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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights United Airlines, Microsoft, D.R. Horton, Halliburton and Chevron

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – January 24, 2023 – 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: United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) , Microsoft Corp (MSFT - Free Report) , D.R. Horton (DHI - Free Report) , Halliburton Co (HAL - Free Report) and Chevron (CVX - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

3 Key EPS Reports to Watch This Week

Thus far, earnings season has been a pleasant surprise on Wall Street. Earnings reactions have been strong, and stocks like United Airlines provided impressive guidance moving forward. However, later this week, Wall Street awaits some of the biggest names on the street to report first-quarter results. Today we will look at 3 key earnings reports to monitor this week:

Microsoft Corp is the largest report of the week and will move the tech sector and the entire U.S. market when it reports Q1 EPS Tuesday night. Though the stock has corrected in line with the tech sector in general, Microsoft's valuation is the most attractive it has been in years. The current P/E of 25.89x matches the P/E ratio the software juggernaut saw at the lows of the pandemic correction in early 2020.

An attractive valuation is not the only potential catalyst the stock has moving forward. Earlier this morning, the company announced it will invest $10 billion in OpenAI in the next ten years. OpenAI is the creator behind the wildly popular ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence (AI) service. Over the weekend, plans to transition the service into a "freemium" were announced. Power users can pay $42 per month to avoid delays and reap other premium ChatGPT benefits.

Sentiment in housing remains poor as mortgage rates have doubled in recent months and home prices have begun to cool. However, the recent action in homebuilders suggests that something else may be happening beneath the surface. Perhaps supply is drying up, or housing is not as weak as initially anticipated by investors. Either way, housing stocks are at the top of the list for contrarian-minded speculators. Texas-based D.R. Horton is one of the leading homebuilders nationwide. Like MSFT, DHI is becoming attractive on a valuation basis. Its P/E of 5.71x is lower than its valuation at the COVID-19 lows. DHI is expected to report earnings Tuesday.

Halliburton Co and stocks of the same feather have been the undisputed market leaders over the past few years. Last quarter HAL reported stellar earnings growth of 114% on revenue of 39%. The stock holds a strong Zack's Ranking of 2. While investors expect strong EPS, the critical factor to watch is how the stock reacts to those earnings.

Is the strong earnings performance baked into shares already, or is there more gas in the tank? Earnings are due Tuesday for Halliburton. Industry group peer Chevron also reports earnings later in the week on Friday.

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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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