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Astera Labs and JD.com have been highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
Read MoreHide Full Article
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – September 8, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Astera Labs (ALAB - Free Report) as the Bull of the Day and JD.com (JD - Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on The Coca-Cola Company (KO - Free Report) , PepsiCo Inc. (PEP - Free Report) and Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (KDP - Free Report) .
Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock Astera Labs is a fabless semiconductor company that develops "purpose-built connectivity solutions for rack-scale AI and cloud infrastructure. In other words, they build the "nervous system" that allows powerful components in an AI server, like GPUs, CPUs, and memory, to communicate with each other effectively. ALAB operates a fabless business model, which means they focus on the design of the chip and software but outsource manufacturing to third-party chip makers like Taiwan Semiconductor.
ALAB: Providing Solutions to AI Scalability
As investors have learned over the past few years, the demand for AI models and the components that 'train them' has grown exponentially. AI capital expenditure (CAPEX) spending among major tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta Platformsand Alphabetis expected to be in the $400 billion range for full-year 2025 as big tech juggernauts race to keep up with soaring demand for AI compute power.
However, as data center size and complexity have exploded, these companies must move beyond single-server architecture. This is where ALAB comes in. Astera Labs technology is the new industry standard. The technology allows "rack-scale" AI, where multiple servers can act in concert, alleviating data transfer bottlenecks and producing rapid, efficient, and reliable connectivity.
ALAB Earnings Exploding
The aforementioned growing speed requirements and system complexities of AI and cloud infrastructure bode well for Astera Labs. ALAB's recent earnings history illustrates that the company has already emerged as a leader in next-generation data center connectivity. In fact, ALAB has beat Zacks Consensus EPS Estimates for four straight quarters, with a juicy beat margin of 32.2%.
Meanwhile, Wall Street analysts believe that ALAB's products will continue to be in high demand well into the future. Several analysts tracked by Zacks Investment Research have upped estimates over the past two months, and these analysts expect the company to grow full-year EPS by a robust 88.10% in 2025 and 24.14% in 2026.
ALAB Technical View: Post-EPS Drift Potential
ALAB's price and volume action are jiving with its robust fundamental picture. ALAB shares bolted ~29% in early August after the company smashed Wall Street expectations. Additionally, volume increased 220% for the session, signaling heavy demand. Since then, ALAB shares have held gains, signaling that bulls are unwilling to part with shares.
Bottom Line
Astera Labs is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the explosive growth of AI infrastructure. With its groundbreaking technology, the company is addressing critical data bottlenecks inherent in next-generation data centers.
Based in Beijing, Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) stock JD.com is one of the largest Chinese e-commerce and technology companies. Also known as Jingdong, JD.com separates itself from the competition by being an essentially vertically integrated e-commerce retailer. JD holds its own inventory, is responsible for its own logistics and deliveries, and provides its own customer service.
JD is similar to Amazonin that it sells a wide variety of products on its e-commerce platform, including clothing, groceries, electronics, and more. Beyond e-commerce, JD also operates health, technology, real estate, and industrial segment businesses. Additionally, JD owns Ochama, a European-based retail brand with operations in the Netherlands France, and Poland.
JD Suffers from Relative Price Weakness vs. Peers
Legendary growth investor William O'Neil once proclaimed that Wall Street's great paradox is, "Stocks that seem too high in price and risky for most investors usually go higher and stocks that seem low and cheap often go lower." I have largely discovered that more often than not, O'Neil's paradox comes to fruition. That's bad news for JD shares, which trade at $30 and are well off their all-time high of >$100.
Additionally, relative price action can provide investors with valuable clues. Currently, JD shares exhibit troubling relative weakness and are -10.70% year-to-date, far underperforming top competitors like Pinduoduo and Alibaba, which are up 27.7% and 54.4% respectively.
JD: Chinese Economic and Regulatory Concerns
While the Chinese economy has staged a recovery, it still suffers from a sky-high unemployment rate, a devastated real estate market, a weak consumer, and deflationary pressures. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions, a trade dispute with the United States, and limited room for fiscal stimulus mean that external and internal demand are likely to suffer. Beyond the economic concerns, JD investors must worry about a Chinese government that has been known to routinely crack down on its companies.
JD: Slowing Earnings Growth
JD earnings growth is declining at an alarming rate. For the current quarter, Zacks Consensus Analyst Estimates suggest that earnings growth will be -64.52%. Meanwhile, while annual revenues are expected to grow 14% in 2025, Wall Street expects full-year earnings to drop 37.09%.
JD Food Delivery Business a Headwind
JD is making an aggressive play for the Chinese food delivery market. While the number of users for the company's Uber Eats or DoorDashlike business has increased, the segment has produced significant losses thus far. Worse still, the company must invest significant capital to maintain its reputation for fast and reliable delivery in a highly competitive market.
Bottom Line
The combination of fierce competition, a shaky Chinese economy, and costly new endeavors is pressuring JD.com's fundamental performance.
Additional content:
Where Coca-Cola Is Winning: A Dive into Segment Performance
The Coca-Cola Company is winning by leaning on its ability to balance global scale with sharp local execution. In second-quarter 2025, the company delivered 5% year-over-year organic revenue growth and margin expansion despite a 1% volume decline, showing its pricing power and portfolio strength.
Notably, Coca-Cola extended its streak to 17 consecutive quarters of global value share gains, fueled by strong performance in brands like Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, fairlife, BODYARMOR and Powerade. Its "all-weather strategy" helped it stay resilient amid currency headwinds, adverse weather and consumer pressures.
Regionally, Coca-Cola is excelling in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. Europe saw volume growth across both East and West, driven by the Share a Coke campaign and momentum in Coke Zero Sugar, Sprite and Fuze Tea. Africa delivered growth in Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria through refined pack-price strategies and bold marketing activations. Even in volatile markets like Eurasia and the Middle East, the company grew its share by focusing on local sourcing, affordability and innovative sparkling flavors.
Beyond regional performance, Coca-Cola's ability to scale innovation is becoming a key competitive edge. Recent launches like Sprite + Tea in North America, along with portfolio expansion in dairy through fairlife, continue to capture evolving consumer preferences.
The company is also using digital platforms and AI-driven pack-price optimization to sharpen execution, while its refillable and mini-can strategies are strengthening affordability and premiumization simultaneously. These initiatives, supported by robust local partnerships, reinforce Coca-Cola's "all-weather strategy" — enabling it to pivot quickly across markets and deliver sustainable growth despite economic uncertainty.
KO's Rivals Drive Growth with New Products
In a fiercely competitive beverage market, PepsiCo Inc. and Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. are standing out by leveraging their core strengths and strategic expansions to capture growth across categories.
PepsiCo is winning through its balanced strength across snacks and beverages, driven by a sharpened focus on productivity, innovation and portfolio diversification. In North America, its Frito-Lay business is stabilizing the category while fueling growth in subsegments like Cheetos, Doritos and the expanding more than $2 billion permissible snacking portfolio with brands such as SunChips and PopCorners. Beverages are also gaining ground, with no-sugar colas delivering share gains and Gatorade regaining momentum in sports drinks.
Keurig is winning in U.S. Refreshment Beverages, where net sales rose nearly 11% in the second quarter, fueled by both core CSD strength and rapid growth in emerging categories. Flagship Dr Pepper continues to post market share gains for the ninth consecutive year, supported by flavor innovation, merchandising expansion and strong consumer engagement.
At the same time, KDP's energy portfolio, anchored by GHOST, C4, Bloom and Black Rifle, has scaled past $1 billion in annual run-rate sales and now commands 7% share of the $26 billion energy market, a dramatic rise from below 1% just a few years ago. Sports hydration brand Electrolit is another standout, growing over 30% and gaining share.
The Zacks Rundown for Coca-Cola
KO's shares have risen 9.6% year to date compared with the industry's growth of 3.6%.
From a valuation standpoint, Coca-Cola trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.72X, significantly higher than the industry's 17.58X.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for KO's 2025 and 2026 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 3.1% and 8.3%, respectively. Earnings estimates for 2025 and 2026 have been unchanged in the past seven days.
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.
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/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
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Astera Labs and JD.com have been highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – September 8, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Astera Labs (ALAB - Free Report) as the Bull of the Day and JD.com (JD - Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on The Coca-Cola Company (KO - Free Report) , PepsiCo Inc. (PEP - Free Report) and Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (KDP - Free Report) .
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Bull of the Day:
Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock Astera Labs is a fabless semiconductor company that develops "purpose-built connectivity solutions for rack-scale AI and cloud infrastructure. In other words, they build the "nervous system" that allows powerful components in an AI server, like GPUs, CPUs, and memory, to communicate with each other effectively. ALAB operates a fabless business model, which means they focus on the design of the chip and software but outsource manufacturing to third-party chip makers like Taiwan Semiconductor.
ALAB: Providing Solutions to AI Scalability
As investors have learned over the past few years, the demand for AI models and the components that 'train them' has grown exponentially. AI capital expenditure (CAPEX) spending among major tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta Platformsand Alphabetis expected to be in the $400 billion range for full-year 2025 as big tech juggernauts race to keep up with soaring demand for AI compute power.
However, as data center size and complexity have exploded, these companies must move beyond single-server architecture. This is where ALAB comes in. Astera Labs technology is the new industry standard. The technology allows "rack-scale" AI, where multiple servers can act in concert, alleviating data transfer bottlenecks and producing rapid, efficient, and reliable connectivity.
ALAB Earnings Exploding
The aforementioned growing speed requirements and system complexities of AI and cloud infrastructure bode well for Astera Labs. ALAB's recent earnings history illustrates that the company has already emerged as a leader in next-generation data center connectivity. In fact, ALAB has beat Zacks Consensus EPS Estimates for four straight quarters, with a juicy beat margin of 32.2%.
Meanwhile, Wall Street analysts believe that ALAB's products will continue to be in high demand well into the future. Several analysts tracked by Zacks Investment Research have upped estimates over the past two months, and these analysts expect the company to grow full-year EPS by a robust 88.10% in 2025 and 24.14% in 2026.
ALAB Technical View: Post-EPS Drift Potential
ALAB's price and volume action are jiving with its robust fundamental picture. ALAB shares bolted ~29% in early August after the company smashed Wall Street expectations. Additionally, volume increased 220% for the session, signaling heavy demand. Since then, ALAB shares have held gains, signaling that bulls are unwilling to part with shares.
Bottom Line
Astera Labs is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the explosive growth of AI infrastructure. With its groundbreaking technology, the company is addressing critical data bottlenecks inherent in next-generation data centers.
Bear of the Day:
Based in Beijing, Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) stock JD.com is one of the largest Chinese e-commerce and technology companies. Also known as Jingdong, JD.com separates itself from the competition by being an essentially vertically integrated e-commerce retailer. JD holds its own inventory, is responsible for its own logistics and deliveries, and provides its own customer service.
JD is similar to Amazonin that it sells a wide variety of products on its e-commerce platform, including clothing, groceries, electronics, and more. Beyond e-commerce, JD also operates health, technology, real estate, and industrial segment businesses. Additionally, JD owns Ochama, a European-based retail brand with operations in the Netherlands France, and Poland.
JD Suffers from Relative Price Weakness vs. Peers
Legendary growth investor William O'Neil once proclaimed that Wall Street's great paradox is, "Stocks that seem too high in price and risky for most investors usually go higher and stocks that seem low and cheap often go lower." I have largely discovered that more often than not, O'Neil's paradox comes to fruition. That's bad news for JD shares, which trade at $30 and are well off their all-time high of >$100.
Additionally, relative price action can provide investors with valuable clues. Currently, JD shares exhibit troubling relative weakness and are -10.70% year-to-date, far underperforming top competitors like Pinduoduo and Alibaba, which are up 27.7% and 54.4% respectively.
JD: Chinese Economic and Regulatory Concerns
While the Chinese economy has staged a recovery, it still suffers from a sky-high unemployment rate, a devastated real estate market, a weak consumer, and deflationary pressures. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions, a trade dispute with the United States, and limited room for fiscal stimulus mean that external and internal demand are likely to suffer. Beyond the economic concerns, JD investors must worry about a Chinese government that has been known to routinely crack down on its companies.
JD: Slowing Earnings Growth
JD earnings growth is declining at an alarming rate. For the current quarter, Zacks Consensus Analyst Estimates suggest that earnings growth will be -64.52%. Meanwhile, while annual revenues are expected to grow 14% in 2025, Wall Street expects full-year earnings to drop 37.09%.
JD Food Delivery Business a Headwind
JD is making an aggressive play for the Chinese food delivery market. While the number of users for the company's Uber Eats or DoorDashlike business has increased, the segment has produced significant losses thus far. Worse still, the company must invest significant capital to maintain its reputation for fast and reliable delivery in a highly competitive market.
Bottom Line
The combination of fierce competition, a shaky Chinese economy, and costly new endeavors is pressuring JD.com's fundamental performance.
Additional content:
Where Coca-Cola Is Winning: A Dive into Segment Performance
The Coca-Cola Company is winning by leaning on its ability to balance global scale with sharp local execution. In second-quarter 2025, the company delivered 5% year-over-year organic revenue growth and margin expansion despite a 1% volume decline, showing its pricing power and portfolio strength.
Notably, Coca-Cola extended its streak to 17 consecutive quarters of global value share gains, fueled by strong performance in brands like Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, fairlife, BODYARMOR and Powerade. Its "all-weather strategy" helped it stay resilient amid currency headwinds, adverse weather and consumer pressures.
Regionally, Coca-Cola is excelling in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. Europe saw volume growth across both East and West, driven by the Share a Coke campaign and momentum in Coke Zero Sugar, Sprite and Fuze Tea. Africa delivered growth in Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria through refined pack-price strategies and bold marketing activations. Even in volatile markets like Eurasia and the Middle East, the company grew its share by focusing on local sourcing, affordability and innovative sparkling flavors.
Beyond regional performance, Coca-Cola's ability to scale innovation is becoming a key competitive edge. Recent launches like Sprite + Tea in North America, along with portfolio expansion in dairy through fairlife, continue to capture evolving consumer preferences.
The company is also using digital platforms and AI-driven pack-price optimization to sharpen execution, while its refillable and mini-can strategies are strengthening affordability and premiumization simultaneously. These initiatives, supported by robust local partnerships, reinforce Coca-Cola's "all-weather strategy" — enabling it to pivot quickly across markets and deliver sustainable growth despite economic uncertainty.
KO's Rivals Drive Growth with New Products
In a fiercely competitive beverage market, PepsiCo Inc. and Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. are standing out by leveraging their core strengths and strategic expansions to capture growth across categories.
PepsiCo is winning through its balanced strength across snacks and beverages, driven by a sharpened focus on productivity, innovation and portfolio diversification. In North America, its Frito-Lay business is stabilizing the category while fueling growth in subsegments like Cheetos, Doritos and the expanding more than $2 billion permissible snacking portfolio with brands such as SunChips and PopCorners. Beverages are also gaining ground, with no-sugar colas delivering share gains and Gatorade regaining momentum in sports drinks.
Keurig is winning in U.S. Refreshment Beverages, where net sales rose nearly 11% in the second quarter, fueled by both core CSD strength and rapid growth in emerging categories. Flagship Dr Pepper continues to post market share gains for the ninth consecutive year, supported by flavor innovation, merchandising expansion and strong consumer engagement.
At the same time, KDP's energy portfolio, anchored by GHOST, C4, Bloom and Black Rifle, has scaled past $1 billion in annual run-rate sales and now commands 7% share of the $26 billion energy market, a dramatic rise from below 1% just a few years ago. Sports hydration brand Electrolit is another standout, growing over 30% and gaining share.
The Zacks Rundown for Coca-Cola
KO's shares have risen 9.6% year to date compared with the industry's growth of 3.6%.
From a valuation standpoint, Coca-Cola trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.72X, significantly higher than the industry's 17.58X.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for KO's 2025 and 2026 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 3.1% and 8.3%, respectively. Earnings estimates for 2025 and 2026 have been unchanged in the past seven days.
Coca-Cola currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). 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/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.