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Interactive Brokers and General Mills have been highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
Read MoreHide Full Article
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – August 19, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR - Free Report) as the Bull of the Day and General Mills (GIS - Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) , Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) .
Interactive Brokers Group operates as an automated global electronic market maker and broker. Analysts have positively revised expectations across the board, landing the stock into a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
In addition to favorable earnings estimate revisions, the stock resides in the Zacks Financial – Investment Bank industry, which is currently ranked in the top 5% of all Zacks industries. Let’s take a closer look at how the company stacks up.
IBKR Shares Double
IBKR shares have delivered a strong performance over the past year, up nearly 110% and widely outperforming relative to the S&P 500. Favorable quarterly results have aided the move, with shares seeing nice strength following its latest print.
The company’s results have been aided by higher customer trading volumes, with volumes in stocks, options, and futures increasing 31%, 24% and 18%, respectively, throughout its latest period. Commission revenue of $516 million throughout the period shot 27% higher year-over-year.
In addition, customers continue flocking to the platform, with customer accounts growing a notable 32% year-over-year to 3.9 million throughout the period.
Valuation multiples have expanded considerably, with the current 31.1X forward 12-month earnings multiple well above the 18.9X five-year median. The current PEG ratio works out to 2.5X, again above the 0.8X five-year median.
The stock sports a Style Score of ‘C’ for Value.
Bottom Line
Investors can implement a stellar strategy to find expected winners by taking advantage of the Zacks Rank – one of the most powerful market tools that provides a massive edge.
The top 5% of all stocks receive the highly coveted Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). These stocks should outperform the market more than any other rank.
Interactive Brokers would be an excellent stock for investors to consider, as displayed by its Zack Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
General Mills is a global manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods sold through retail stores.
Its principal product categories include ready-to-eat cereals, convenient meals, snacks, yogurt, super-premium ice creams, baking mixes and ingredients, and more. Analysts have taken a bearish stance on the company’s outlook, landing it into a Zack Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
Let’s take a closer look at the company.
GIS Shares Face Pressure
GIS shares have faced consistent selling pressure over the last year, down 26% compared to the S&P 500’s impressive 17% gain. Quarterly results haven’t been enough to boost performance, despite GIS regularly exceeding consensus EPS expectations over recent years.
Organic net sales were down 3% year-over-year in its latest period, driven by lower volumes and an unfavorable price mix. The company’s profitability has also taken a notable hit, with its gross margin falling 340 basis points to 32.4% throughout the above-mentioned quarter.
The profitability hit is certainly notable, helping explain the poor share performance and downward revisions. Operating profit of $504 million fell 35% year-over-year. Still, CEO Jeff Harmening remains positive, stating –
“With a clear framework centered on remarkability and positive early returns from our Q4 investments, I’m confident our fiscal 2026 plans will put us on a path back to driving long-term growth in line with our shareholder return model.”
The company’s next release is slated for mid-September, with sales revisions also showing a similarly bearish nature as the EPS outlook.
Bottom Line
Negative earnings estimate revisions paint a challenging picture for the company’s shares in the near term.
General Mills is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), indicating that analysts have taken a bearish stance on the company’s earnings outlook.
For those seeking strong stocks, the best idea would be to focus on stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) – these stocks sport a notably stronger earnings outlook paired with the potential to deliver explosive gains in the near term.
Additional content:
More Upside for Microsoft Ahead as Azure Lifts Cloud Revenues?
Microsoft is witnessing strong adoption for its Azure platform, which is powering the company’s cloud business. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, its cloud revenues climbed 27% year over year to $46.7 billion, with Azure and other cloud services alone rising 39%.
Management also disclosed that Azure’s annual revenues exceeded $75 billion, highlighting its position as a central growth engine. This “Azure boom” has become the single largest contributor to Microsoft’s top line, pushing overall fourth-quarter revenues to $76.4 billion, up 18% from the prior year.
The momentum stems from enterprises steadily migrating legacy workloads, scaling cloud-native applications and deploying AI-driven solutions. Microsoft’s deep partnership with OpenAI and its Azure AI Foundry platform has already attracted more than 14,000 customers building generative AI models and intelligent agents. Meanwhile, the rollout of Copilot across Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 is amplifying Azure usage, creating a powerful flywheel that accelerates both adoption and consumption.
Looking ahead, Microsoft’s confidence in sustained upside is backed by record investments. Capital expenditures reached $24.2 billion in the quarter, with plans to rise to $30 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, setting the stage for as much as $120 billion annually. With more than 400 data centers across nearly 70 regions, the company is expanding at an unprecedented scale to meet rising AI and cloud demand. This scale advantage not only ensures capacity but also reinforces customer stickiness, a key to sustaining growth.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2026 and 2027 indicates that revenues will grow 13.8% and 14.3%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis.
How Rivals Stack Up Against MSFT in Cloud Space
Amazon-owned Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to lead the cloud infrastructure market with approximately 30-32% global market share, ahead of Microsoft and Google. AWS leverages its expansive portfolio of over 200 services and unmatched infrastructure, supported by over $100 billion in annual data center investment. Despite its scale and profitability, AWS faces mounting pressure from Microsoft and Google, whose rapid AI-driven cloud advances threaten its long-term competitive edge.
Alphabet-owned Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is emerging as a fierce competitor to AWS and Microsoft Azure, driven by rapid AI-led growth. Google Cloud posted revenues of $13.62 billion in the second quarter of 2025, up 31.7% year over year, with its annual run rate topping $50 billion. Strengths in AI/ML, Vertex AI and Gemini, along with partnerships with NVIDIA and PayPal, are expanding enterprise adoption. Google Cloud Platform continues to scale through global data centers, security and next-gen AI infrastructure.
MSFT shares have appreciated 23.4% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the Zacks Computer – Software industry and the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s growth of 19.4% and 13.7%, respectively.
From a valuation standpoint, MSFT stock is currently trading at a forward 12-month Price/Sales ratio of 11.83X compared with the industry’s 8.69X. MSFT has a Value Score of F.
MSFT’s Valuation
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MSFT’s fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $15.32 per share, up 2.3% over the past 30 days. The estimate indicates 12.32% year-over-year growth.
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Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.
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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Interactive Brokers and General Mills have been highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – August 19, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR - Free Report) as the Bull of the Day and General Mills (GIS - Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) , Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) .
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks.
Bull of the Day:
Interactive Brokers Group operates as an automated global electronic market maker and broker. Analysts have positively revised expectations across the board, landing the stock into a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
In addition to favorable earnings estimate revisions, the stock resides in the Zacks Financial – Investment Bank industry, which is currently ranked in the top 5% of all Zacks industries. Let’s take a closer look at how the company stacks up.
IBKR Shares Double
IBKR shares have delivered a strong performance over the past year, up nearly 110% and widely outperforming relative to the S&P 500. Favorable quarterly results have aided the move, with shares seeing nice strength following its latest print.
The company’s results have been aided by higher customer trading volumes, with volumes in stocks, options, and futures increasing 31%, 24% and 18%, respectively, throughout its latest period. Commission revenue of $516 million throughout the period shot 27% higher year-over-year.
In addition, customers continue flocking to the platform, with customer accounts growing a notable 32% year-over-year to 3.9 million throughout the period.
Valuation multiples have expanded considerably, with the current 31.1X forward 12-month earnings multiple well above the 18.9X five-year median. The current PEG ratio works out to 2.5X, again above the 0.8X five-year median.
The stock sports a Style Score of ‘C’ for Value.
Bottom Line
Investors can implement a stellar strategy to find expected winners by taking advantage of the Zacks Rank – one of the most powerful market tools that provides a massive edge.
The top 5% of all stocks receive the highly coveted Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). These stocks should outperform the market more than any other rank.
Interactive Brokers would be an excellent stock for investors to consider, as displayed by its Zack Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Bear of the Day:
General Mills is a global manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods sold through retail stores.
Its principal product categories include ready-to-eat cereals, convenient meals, snacks, yogurt, super-premium ice creams, baking mixes and ingredients, and more. Analysts have taken a bearish stance on the company’s outlook, landing it into a Zack Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
Let’s take a closer look at the company.
GIS Shares Face Pressure
GIS shares have faced consistent selling pressure over the last year, down 26% compared to the S&P 500’s impressive 17% gain. Quarterly results haven’t been enough to boost performance, despite GIS regularly exceeding consensus EPS expectations over recent years.
Organic net sales were down 3% year-over-year in its latest period, driven by lower volumes and an unfavorable price mix. The company’s profitability has also taken a notable hit, with its gross margin falling 340 basis points to 32.4% throughout the above-mentioned quarter.
The profitability hit is certainly notable, helping explain the poor share performance and downward revisions. Operating profit of $504 million fell 35% year-over-year. Still, CEO Jeff Harmening remains positive, stating –
“With a clear framework centered on remarkability and positive early returns from our Q4 investments, I’m confident our fiscal 2026 plans will put us on a path back to driving long-term growth in line with our shareholder return model.”
The company’s next release is slated for mid-September, with sales revisions also showing a similarly bearish nature as the EPS outlook.
Bottom Line
Negative earnings estimate revisions paint a challenging picture for the company’s shares in the near term.
General Mills is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), indicating that analysts have taken a bearish stance on the company’s earnings outlook.
For those seeking strong stocks, the best idea would be to focus on stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) – these stocks sport a notably stronger earnings outlook paired with the potential to deliver explosive gains in the near term.
Additional content:
More Upside for Microsoft Ahead as Azure Lifts Cloud Revenues?
Microsoft is witnessing strong adoption for its Azure platform, which is powering the company’s cloud business. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, its cloud revenues climbed 27% year over year to $46.7 billion, with Azure and other cloud services alone rising 39%.
Management also disclosed that Azure’s annual revenues exceeded $75 billion, highlighting its position as a central growth engine. This “Azure boom” has become the single largest contributor to Microsoft’s top line, pushing overall fourth-quarter revenues to $76.4 billion, up 18% from the prior year.
The momentum stems from enterprises steadily migrating legacy workloads, scaling cloud-native applications and deploying AI-driven solutions. Microsoft’s deep partnership with OpenAI and its Azure AI Foundry platform has already attracted more than 14,000 customers building generative AI models and intelligent agents. Meanwhile, the rollout of Copilot across Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 is amplifying Azure usage, creating a powerful flywheel that accelerates both adoption and consumption.
Looking ahead, Microsoft’s confidence in sustained upside is backed by record investments. Capital expenditures reached $24.2 billion in the quarter, with plans to rise to $30 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, setting the stage for as much as $120 billion annually. With more than 400 data centers across nearly 70 regions, the company is expanding at an unprecedented scale to meet rising AI and cloud demand. This scale advantage not only ensures capacity but also reinforces customer stickiness, a key to sustaining growth.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2026 and 2027 indicates that revenues will grow 13.8% and 14.3%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis.
How Rivals Stack Up Against MSFT in Cloud Space
Amazon-owned Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to lead the cloud infrastructure market with approximately 30-32% global market share, ahead of Microsoft and Google. AWS leverages its expansive portfolio of over 200 services and unmatched infrastructure, supported by over $100 billion in annual data center investment. Despite its scale and profitability, AWS faces mounting pressure from Microsoft and Google, whose rapid AI-driven cloud advances threaten its long-term competitive edge.
Alphabet-owned Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is emerging as a fierce competitor to AWS and Microsoft Azure, driven by rapid AI-led growth. Google Cloud posted revenues of $13.62 billion in the second quarter of 2025, up 31.7% year over year, with its annual run rate topping $50 billion. Strengths in AI/ML, Vertex AI and Gemini, along with partnerships with NVIDIA and PayPal, are expanding enterprise adoption. Google Cloud Platform continues to scale through global data centers, security and next-gen AI infrastructure.
MSFT’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates
MSFT shares have appreciated 23.4% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the Zacks Computer – Software industry and the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s growth of 19.4% and 13.7%, respectively.
From a valuation standpoint, MSFT stock is currently trading at a forward 12-month Price/Sales ratio of 11.83X compared with the industry’s 8.69X. MSFT has a Value Score of F.
MSFT’s Valuation
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MSFT’s fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $15.32 per share, up 2.3% over the past 30 days. The estimate indicates 12.32% year-over-year growth.
Microsoft currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Free: Instant Access to Zacks' Market-Crushing Strategies
Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year.
Today you can tap into those powerful strategies – and the high-potential stocks they uncover – free. No strings attached.
Get all the details here >>
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Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.
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.