Friday, December 17, 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 Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO), and salesforce.com, inc. (CRM). 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 Berkshire Hathaway have outperformed the Zacks Insurance - Property and Casualty industry over the past year (+31% vs. +16.6%). The Zacks analyst believes that Berkshire Hathaway is poised to benefit from its insurance, manufacturing, service and retail businesses, and disciplined capital management.

A strong cash position supports earnings-accretive bolt-on buyouts, and indicates BRK.B’s financial flexibility. Continued insurance business growth fuels increase in the float, drive earnings and generates maximum return on equity. A sturdy capital level provides further impetus. Exposure to catastrophe loss, however, leads to earnings volatility and also impacts the property and casualty underwriting results of Berkshire.

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

Thermo Fisher shares have gained +39.8% in the year to date period against the Zacks Medical Instruments industry’s gain of +7%. The Zacks analyst sees that Thermo Fisher has been expanding its inorganic growth profile through takeovers such as the Advanced Bioprocessing buyout from BD and Patheon.

TMO’s focus on emerging markets is also encouraging. Thermo Fisher delivered a strong performance in the last-reported third quarter, leveraging on a significant rebound in its base business. Strong end-market growth in the quarter was driven by robust fundamentals in life sciences, strong economic activity globally and a strong pandemic response. TMO’s raised 2021 guidance indicates that the momentum is likely to continue through the next year.

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

Shares of salesforce.com have gained +2.4% in the last six months against the Zacks Computer Software industry’s gain of +19.3%, but things seem to be improving. The Zacks analyst believes that CRM has been benefiting from a robust demand environment as customers are undergoing a major digital transformation.

The rapid adoption of its cloud-based solutions is driving demand for its products. The recent acquisition of Slack is likely to position salesforce as a leader in enterprise team collaboration solution space. Stiff competition, unfavorable currency fluctuations, and increasing investments in international expansion are some of the major headwinds, though.

(You can read the full research report on salesforce.com here >>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Roche Holding AG (RHHBY), Nike, Inc. (NKE) and Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN).

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>>>