Tuesday, March 25, 2025

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 Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) and Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), as well as a micro-cap stock Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS). The Zacks microcap research is unique as our research content on these small and under-the-radar companies is the only research of its type in the country.

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 >>>

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You can read today's AWS here >>> Pre-Markets Swing Back into Green

Today's Featured Research Reports

Shares of Microsoft have underperformed the Zacks Computer - Software industry over the past year (-6.1% vs. -2.4%). The company’s Microsoft Office is facing declining commercial licensing due to the continued customer shift to cloud offerings is an overhang. Higher operating expenses and spending on Azure amid stiff competition in the cloud space from Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services remain concerns.

Nevertheless, Microsoft is benefiting from steady growth in its AI business and Copilot adoption amid decelerating growth in its Azure cloud infrastructure unit. Productivity and Business Processes revenues continue to rise due to strong adoption of Office 365 Commercial solutions. ARPU growth is driven by E5 as well as M365 Copilot.

Intelligent Cloud revenues are gaining from growth in Azure AI services and a rise in AI Copilot business. Non-AI growth trends are experiencing sluggishness due to go-to-market execution challenges. The Zacks analyst expect fiscal 2025 net sales to grow 12.7% from fiscal 2024.

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

NVIDIA’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Semiconductor - General industry over the past year (+31.2% vs. +23.7%). The company is benefiting from the strong growth of artificial intelligence (AI), high performance and accelerated computing. The growing demand for generative AI and large language models using graphic processing units (GPUs) based on NVIDIA’s Hopper and Blackwell architectures is aiding data center revenues.

Continued ramp-up of Ada RTX GPU workstations in the ProViz end market following the normalization of channel inventory is acting as a tailwind. The Zacks analyst expect NVIDIA’s revenues to witness a CAGR of 27.7% through fiscal 2026-2028. Collaborations with over 320 automakers and tier-one suppliers are likely to advance its presence in the autonomous vehicles space.

However, a limited supply of Blackwell and Ada GPUs could hinder its ability to meet demand. Rising costs associated with the production of more complex AI systems will hurt margins.

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

Shares of Alphabet have outperformed the Zacks Internet - Services industry over the past year (+11.8% vs. +11.1%). The company is riding on strong cloud and search growth. Google Cloud is benefiting from accelerated growth across AI infrastructure, enterprise AI platform Vertex and strong adoption of Generative AI solutions.

Alphabet exited 2024 with an annual run rate of $110 billion for its Cloud and YouTube businesses. The company now expects to invest roughly $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, which is aimed to build up technical infrastructure, primarily for servers followed by data centers and networking.

Its dominant position in the search engine market is a strong growth driver. However, increasing litigation issues and expenses remain concerns. Rising cloud competition from Microsoft and Amazon is a concern.

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

Cooper-Standard’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Automotive - Original Equipment industry over the past year (+11.9% vs. -17.5%). This microcap company with market capitalization of $300.79 million have seen expanded margins despite lower revenue, with fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA increasing 96.8% year-over-year to $54.3 million. Cost optimizations delivered over $100 million in savings, and management aims for double-digit margins by the fourth quarter of 2025.

Net new business reached $181.4 million, with 58% tied to electric vehicles, boosting content per vehicle. Proprietary innovations and partnerships with major original equipment manufacturers enhance competitiveness.

However, high debt of $1.06 billion and rising interest costs of $97.3 million in 2024, projected at $105 million to $115 million in 2025, pose risks. Cooper-Standard reported a net loss of $78.7 million in 2024 as revenue declined 3% to $2.73 billion. Weak global auto production, foreign exchange headwinds, and pricing pressure from automakers could challenge its 2025 margin target.

(You can read the full research report on Cooper-Standard here >>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Sony Group Corp. (SONY), GSK plc (GSK) and Diamondback Energy, Inc. (FANG).

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>>>