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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: JPMorgan, American Express, FedEx, PepsiCo and CVS

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL –October 10, 2018 – 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: JPMorgan (JPM - Free Report) , American Express (AXP - Free Report) , FedEx (FDX - Free Report) , PepsiCo (PEP - Free Report) and CVS Health (CVS - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Research Reports for JPMorgan, American Express and FedEx

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 JPMorgan, American Express and FedEx. These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.

JPMorgan’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Major Regional Banks industry over the past six months (+2.5% vs. +0.5%). Also, the company has an impressive earnings surprise history, having surpassed expectations in each of the trailing four quarters.

The Zacks analyst thinks expansion into new markets, focus on strengthening the card business, higher interest rates and rising loan demand will benefit the bank’s financials. Further, lower tax rates and easing of stringent regulations are expected to offer some support.

However, dismal mortgage banking performance (as originations continue to decline) remains a major concern. This is expected hamper revenue growth to some extent.

Shares of Buy-ranked American Express are up +16.4% over the past year, outperforming the Zacks Financial Miscellaneous Services industry, which has declined -10.3% over the same period. The Zacks analyst thinks a solid market position, strength in card business and significant opportunities from the secular shift toward electronic payments are growth drivers. It continues to witness strong loan growth and credit metrics.

A number of growth initiatives such as new products, enhancements of features on existing ones, changes to pricing, seem to be bearing fruit now. Its international business seems attractive. However, it is faced with an increase in reward expense led by enhancements to its U.S. platinum products.

Cost of card member services has been increasing over the past three years and continues to do so this year, reflecting higher engagement levels across its premium travel services. It is also witnessing an increase in provision of loan losses for the past two and half years.

FedEx’s shares have underperformed the Zacks Air Freight and Cargo industry (-0.3% vs. +4.9%) and rival United Parcel Service (+9.5%) over the past three months. Adding to its woes, FedEx reported lower-than-expected earnings per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. Results were hurt by high operating expenses.

With FedEx investing significantly to upgrade facilities at its key divisions, capital expenses are also on an upswing. For fiscal 2019, capital expenses are expected to be $5.6 billion. However, e-commerce growth is a positive.

FedEx's top line increased 11.5% in the fiscal first quarter mainly owing to growing e-commerce demand. The Zacks analyst likes the company’s decision to raise the fiscal 2019 earnings guidance. Low tax rates are aiding bottom-line growth. FedEx's efforts to reward shareholders through dividend payments and share buybacks are encouraging as well.

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include PepsiCo and CVS Health.

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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 http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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