Monday, March 5, 2018

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 Kraft Heinz (KHC), EOG Resources (EOG) and CME Group (CME). 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 >>>

Kraft Heinz’s shares have declined -26.3% over the last one year, underperforming the Zacks Diversified Food industry which is down -11% over the same period. Kraft Heinz posted lower-than-expected results in the fourth quarter of 2017 with both earnings and sales missing expectations.

Net sales increased by a meager 0.3% year over year, but earnings declined 1.1% from the year-ago level. Sales growth continued to face challenges in the quarter due to softness in the U.S. retail environment. Organic sales in the United States declined 1.1% year over year due to lower volume.

Soft consumer demand in North America and Canada along with a 4% year-over-year decline in gross profit affected the company’s fourth-quarter earnings. Kraft Heinz has been struggling due to the shift in consumer preferences toward natural and organic ingredients over packaged and processed food. Additionally, earnings estimates are trending downward for 2018 over the last 30 days.

(You can read the full research report on Kraft Heinz here >>>).

Shares of Buy-rated EOG Resources have gained around +1.3% over the last one year, outperforming the Zacks Oil & Gas E&P Industry, which has declined -15.9% over the same period. EOG holds premium acreages in the Permian, Bakken and Eagle Ford oil shale plays in the United States where it has identified 17,000 premium wells that could lend access to almost 11.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent estimated potential reserves.

In the Eagle Ford alone, EOG identified 7,200 locations that will drive the firm’s oil production. Meanwhile, the company continues to lower its well drilling and exploration expenses.

In the next 10 years, EOG plans to drill many premium oil wells and its strong emphasis on reducing costs has led to an encouraging outlook. In the fourth quarter, the firm surpassed both the top and bottom lines, thanks to higher commodity price realizations.

(You can read the full research report on EOG Resources here >>>).

Buy-rated CME Group’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Securities and Exchanges industry over the last one year, gaining +34% vs. +27.2%. CME Group’s fourth-quarter 2017 results outpaced expectations but deteriorated year over year due to lower trading volumes.

The company remains well-positioned for growth on a strong market position with diverse derivative product lines. Efforts to expand and cross sell its core exchange-traded business via new product initiatives and global reach also support growth.

It intends to exit its credit default swap clearing business by mid-2018 and focus on over-the-counter clearing services on interest rate swaps as well as foreign exchange. This will free up $650 million as clearing member capital. 

However, expenses remain a concern. Adjusted total operating expenses excluding license fees are projected to range between $1.10 billion and $1.11 billion in 2018.  Exposure to interest rate volatility and limited credit availability might hamper liquidity.

(You can read the full research report on CME Group here >>>).

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Bayer (BAYRY), TJX Companies (TJX) and Ecolab (ECL).

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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>>>