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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Facebook, Thermo Fisher Scientific, McDonalds, NIKE and QUALCOMM

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 2, 2020 – 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: Facebook , Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO - Free Report) , McDonalds (MCD - Free Report) , NIKE (NKE - Free Report) and QUALCOMM (QCOM - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Stock Reports for Facebook, Thermo Fisher and McDonald'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 Facebook, Thermo Fisher Scientific and McDonalds. 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 >>>

Facebook shares have held their own, despite the ongoing drumbeat of ad boycott announcements, with the stock up +19.1% over the past year vs. the +4.9% gain for the S&P 500 index. The Zacks analyst believes that Facebook is benefiting from growth in Instagram Stories and Feed, and an expanding user base in Asia Pacific. In effect, the company has emerged as a must-have platform for advertisers, along with Alphabet, that is hard to ignore. 

The company helped people connect during the coronavirus pandemic. Notably, voice and video calling more than doubled on Messenger and WhatsApp. The launch of Messenger Rooms for video call, which can accommodate 50 people, and WhatsApp video support for up to eight users are noteworthy in this regard.

However, Facebook expects ad-sales to be hurt by weakness in travel and automotive industries. Further, a number of companies have announced plans to freeze ad spending on Facebook due to its failure to eradicate hate speech and misinformation. This is expected to hurt top-line growth, at least in the near term. Higher operating expenses are also expected to dent the operating margin in 2020. 

Shares of Thermo Fisher have gained +10% over the past six months against the Zacks Medical Instruments industry’s rise of +4.1%. The Zacks analyst is encouraged by the strong year-over-year revenue growth at Life Sciences Solutions and Laboratory Products and Services segments.

The company’s end- market underlying growth performance was strong before the outbreak in China. Meanwhile, the company is optimistic about the progress related to its COVID-19 diagnostic test. In the first quarter, the company reported rapid uptake of these diagnostic kits.

However, the coronavirus outbreak has massively disrupted the global supply chain. Two of the end markets registered loss in the first quarter, largely due to customer shutdowns in China.

McDonalds’ shares have gained +14.4% over the past three months against the Zacks Restaurants industry’s rise of +23.8%. The Zacks analyst believes that the company is benefitting from increase in drive-thru sales.

Also, its increased focus on delivery and accelerated deployment of EOTF restaurants in the United States is commendable. Additionally, the company is making every effort to drive growth in international markets as well. Notably, earning estimates for 2020 have increased over the past 60 days, depicting analyst’s optimism regarding the stock growth potential.

However, coronavirus related woes remain a concern. This along with costs associated with brand positioning in all the key markets and ongoing investments in initiatives might weigh on margins, at least in the near term. Also, decline in comps pose a threat for the company.  

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include NIKE and QUALCOMM.

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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/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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