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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Abbott, Philip Morris, Lowe's, Equinix and Kinder Morgan

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL –November 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: Abbott Laboratories (ABT - Free Report) , Philip Morris International (PM - Free Report) , Lowe's Companies (LOW - Free Report) , Equinix (EQIX - Free Report) and Kinder Morgan (KMI - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Analyst Reports for Abbott, Philip Morris and Lowe’s

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 Abbott Laboratories, Philip Morris International and Lowe's Companies. 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 >>>

Abbott’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Medical Products industry year to date (+15.8% vs. +12.2%). The Zacks analyst believes that sluggish Neuromodulation and Vascular sales has dented growth. Abbott registered strong and consistent performance within EPD and Medical Devices segments.

Abbott has been in news within Diabetic Care on growth with FreeStyle Libre. Also, solid contributions from Diagnostics were encouraging on double-digit growth in core laboratory. Within Structural Heart, worldwide uptake of MitraClip improved further. Meanwhile, emerging market performance has been promising. Abbott exited third-quarter 2019 on a mixed note with earnings meeting estimates and revenues missing the same.

Abbott has narrowed its EPS guidance for 2019. Abbott's international performance was dented by increasing currency headwinds and lower non-governmental organization purchases in Africa.

(You can read the full research report on Abbott here >>>)

Shares of Philip Morris have gained 6% in the past three months against the Zacks Tobacco industry’s rise of 5.2%. The Zacks analyst believes that Efficient pricing and gains from growth of IQOS in RRPs arena have remained as upsides for the company.

These factors had a positive impact on third-quarter results, with earnings and revenues beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Also, earnings improved year on year. We note that the company is on track with investments to bolster presence in the RRPs space.

However, the company has been facing persistent sluggishness in the cigarette category. During the third quarter, cigarette shipment volumes declined 5.9% while overall revenues from combustible products slipped 5.7%. Moreover, unfavorable currency movements are a threat.

(You can read the full research report on Philip Morris here >>>)

Lowe's shares have gained 23.9% over the past six months against the Zacks Building Products - Retail industry's rise of 15.6%. The Zacks analyst believes that strong macroeconomic landscape along with constant efforts to enhance customers’ experience, solid performance of the merchandise category and strength in the Pro business bode well.

The stock received a boost when it reported third-quarter fiscal 2019 results, wherein earnings grew year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Moreover, comps in the quarter increased, driven by solid performance in its U.S. home improvement stores. Strong macroeconomic landscape along with constant efforts to enhance customers’ experience, solid performance of the merchandise category and strength in the Pro business also bode well.

Further, efforts to enhance online business led to robust comps growth in lowes.com. Encouragingly, management raised adjusted earnings guidance for fiscal 2019. However, high level of debt for the past few quarters may act as a deterrent. Also, the company is exposed to competition.

(You can read the full research report on Lowe's here >>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Equinix and Kinder Morgan.

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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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