Back to top

Image: Bigstock

The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Bank of America, Oracle, Intuit, Southwest Airlines and American Water Works

Read MoreHide Full Article

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – February 26, 2019 – 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: Bank of America (BAC - Free Report) , Oracle (ORCL - Free Report) , Intuit (INTU - Free Report) , Southwest Airlines (LUV - Free Report) and American Water Works (AWK - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Analyst Reports for Bank of America, Oracle and Intuit

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 Bank of America, Oracle and Intuit. 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 >>>

Bank of America possesses an impressive earnings surprise history, beating expectations in each of the trailing four quarters. The Zacks analyst thinks rise in loan and deposit balances, higher interest rates and efforts to control expenses will likely support profitability.

Also, its initiatives to expand into new markets and digital offerings are expected to further enhance cross selling opportunities. However, dismal performance of capital markets has been hurting the company’s investment banking operations. Thus, this is will likely hamper its fee income growth to some extent in the quarters ahead.

Oracle is benefiting from strong adoption of its cloud-based solutions, comprising Fusion ERP and Fusion HCM, among others. The Zacks analyst thinks partnerships with the likes of Accenture are helping the company rapidly expand its cloud-base clientele. Also, anticipated strong demand for the next-generation autonomous database supported by machine learning will boost competitive position against AWS.

Oracle is anticipated to benefit from growing retail clientele. The company has positive record of earnings surprises in recent quarters. Nonetheless, stiff competition in the cloud market from dominant players is anticipated to limit margin expansion.

Further, lower hardware volumes are anticipated to hurt top-line growth consequently keeping margins under pressure. Additionally, integration risks from buyouts remain a concern. Notably, estimates have been stable lately ahead of the company’s Q3 earnings release.

Intuit's Q2 results benefited from solid online ecosystem revenue growth. The Zacks analyst thinks impressive growth across its Small Business and Self-Employed, and Consumer Tax segments is a tailwind. TurboTax Live offering also is likely to be a tailwind to the Consumer tax business. A solid momentum of the company’s lending product, QuickBooks Capital is a positive for the company.

Moreover, the company’s strategy of shifting its business to cloud-based subscription model will help generate more stable revenues over the long run. However, high costs and expenses remain a major concern. Competition from companies like Microsoft also increases pricing pressure.

Again, due to the business being seasonal, Intuit is exposed to significant operational risks. Moreover, it expects QuickBooks desktop unit to decline in single digits, and desktop ecosystem revenues to be flat in fiscal 2019.

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Southwest Airlines and American Water Works.

The Could Be the Fastest Way to Grow Wealth in 2019

Research indicates one sector is poised to deliver a crop of the best-performing stocks you'll find anywhere in the market. Breaking news in this space frequently creates quick double- and triple-digit profit opportunities.

These companies are changing the world – and owning their stocks could transform your portfolio in 2019 and beyond. Recent trades from this sector have generated +98%, +119% and +164% gains in as little as 1 month.

Click here to see these breakthrough stocks now >>

Media Contact

Zacks Investment Research

800-767-3771 ext. 9339

support@zacks.com                                   

http://www.zacks.com                                                 

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.

Published in