Thursday, September 30, 2021

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 Eli Lilly and Company (LLY), Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST), and Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT). 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 >>>

Shares of Eli Lilly have outperformed the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry over the past year (+64.1% vs. +18.3%). The Zacks analyst believes that higher demand for drugs like Trulicity, Taltz, and others have been boosting the company’s revenue growth.

An excellent pipeline for cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's treatments is likely to keep supporting Lilly’s growth through 2025. Generic competition for several drugs, rising pricing pressure in the United States, and price cuts in some international markets remain as some major top-line headwinds though.

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

Costco shares have gained +14.7% in the last three months against the Zacks Discount Retail industry’s gain of +2.4%, but things seem to be improving for the tech giant. The Zacks analyst believes that the strategy to sell products at heavily discounted prices has helped it to remain on a growth track as cash-strapped customers continue to depend on Costco as an option for low-cost necessities.

Costco’s net sales increased 17.5% to $61.4 billion during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 — the 16-week period ended Aug 29, 2021 — from $52.3 billion in the last year. Stiff competition from both brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers and cautious consumer spending is likely to hurt Costco's performance in the near term though.

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

Shares of Applied Materials have gained +49.4% in the year to date period against the Zacks Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry’s gain of +45.7%. The Zacks analyst believes that strength in the 3D NAND market, innovation strategy, and growth in the Chinese market will drive the business.

Increased customer spending in foundry and logic on the back of the ever-growing need for specialty nodes in automotive, power, 5G rollout, IoT, communications and image sensor markets, is a major positive. A high fixed cost structure, slowdown in smartphone market, weak chip demand, and macroeconomic uncertainties are major concerns though.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Lowe's Companies, Inc. (LOW), Illumina, Inc. (ILMN) and Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC).

Sheraz Mian

Director of Research

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>>>