Friday, July 21, 2017

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 Alphabet (GOOGL), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and T-Mobile (TMUS). 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 >>>

Buy-rated Alphabet shares have outperformed the Zacks Internet-Services over the last one year period (the stock is up +30.6% vs. +22.1% gain for the sector) on the back of innovation and strategic acquisitions, while Android OS should continue to generate strong cash flows. Its diversification strategy is also positive, but requires significant investment and involves uncertain payback periods, particularly since these efforts are at the cutting edge of technology.

Alphabet has shown good execution to date, more or less maintaining its dominant share in a competitive, fast-growing search market. (You can read the full research report on Alphabet here >>>).

Shares of GlaxoSmithKline have gained more +11% year-to-date, marginally underperforming the Zacks Large-Cap Pharmaceuticals industry, which has gained +13.2% over the same period. However, Glaxo should continue to see strong performances from all of its business segments – Pharmaceuticals, Vaccines and Consumer Healthcare.

The Zacks analyst likes Glaxo’s efforts to develop its pipeline as well. Performance of new products as well as of those acquired from Novartis has been encouraging. However, persistent challenges like stiff competition, genericization and pricing pressure along with slowing growth in emerging markets have been affecting the company’s performance. In particular, pricing dynamics and competitive pressure are hurting sales of its top-selling drug Advair.

Meanwhile, Advair is expected to face generic competition in the U.S. soon which will further hurt sales. However, estimates have risen ahead of Glaxo’s Q2 earnings release. The company has also recorded a string of positive earnings surprises in recent quarters. (You can read the full research report on GlaxoSmithKline here >>>).

T-Mobile’s shares have been strong performers lately - the stock is up +34.5% over the last 12 months, handily outperforming the Zacks National Wireless industry (down -12%) and the broader Zacks Telecommunications Services industry (down -6.8%). T-Mobile US posted impressive second-quarter 2017 financial results.

The Zacks analyst thinks T-Mobile US' network expansion plans of 5G trials with Ericsson and Nokia, 4G LTE network improvement and expansion, deployment of LTE-U technology and unlimited ‘T-Mobile One’ plan have driven additional net customers of 1.333 million. The company raised its outlook for 2017 on the back of huge subscriber gains.

However, competitive and saturated wireless market and marketing costs of the low-priced promotional plans are major headwinds. Also, it faces increased scrutiny in its working conditions, lawsuits and fines by regulatory authorities. (You can read the full research report on T-Mobile here >>>).

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include EOG Resources (EOG), Northrop Grumman (NOC) and CSX Corp (CSX).

Want to see all of today's Zacks Strong Buys?
Today's 5 additions are just the appetizer. You are welcome to download the full, up-to-the-minute list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 stocks free of charge. There is no better place to start your own stock search. Plus you can also access the full list of must-avoid Zacks Strong Sells and other private research. See the stocks free >>.

Mark Vickery

Senior Editor

Note: Sheraz Mian heads the Zacks Equity Research department and is a well-regarded expert of aggregate earnings. He is frequently quoted in the print and electronic media and publishes the weekly Earnings Trends and Earnings Preview reports. If you want an email notification each time Sheraz publishes a new article, please click here>>>