Tuesday, October 18, 2022

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 The Procter & Gamble Company (PG), The Coca-Cola Company (KO) and TotalEnergies SE (TTE). 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 Procter & Gamble have declined -9.5% over the past year against the S&P 500 decline of -19.9%. The company is going thorough a phase of unfavorable mix, commodity cost inflation, increase in freight costs, product and packaging investments and other impacts hurt margins. It expects higher commodity and freight costs to persist in fiscal 2023.

That said, what has helped the stock hold its ground in the ongoing market sell off is the stability and resilience of its business across all stages of the economic cycle. We saw this in the last quarterly report and will most likely get more confirmation of that in the Q3 earnings report on October 19th.

Management issued a favorable view for fiscal 2023 at the time of the last quarterly release. It witnessed SG&A expense leverage, owing to savings from overhead and marketing expenses, and cost leverage gains due to higher sales and real estate.

(You can read the full research report on Procter & Gamble here >>>)

Coca-Cola shares have outperformed the S&P 500 over the past year (+2.9% vs. -19.9%). The company’s top and bottom lines surpassed estimates for the sixth straight quarter in the last quarterly report on July 26th and it is reasonable to expect a replay of that performance in next week's Q3 release. The company’s results reflect elasticity in the marketplace despite the ongoing global challenges. Sales gained from revenue growth across its operating segments, aided by an improved price/mix and an increase in concentrate sales.

Coca-Cola benefited from underlying share gains in both at-home and away-from-home channels. It raised the organic revenues and comparable earnings per share growth guidance for 2022. It is poised to gain from innovations and accelerating digital investments.

However, pressures from higher supply chain costs, including transportation and input costs remain. Higher marketing spends and currency headwinds are also concerning.

(You can read the full research report on Coca-Cola here >>>)

Shares of TotalEnergies have declined -1.0% over the past year against the S&P 500 decline of -19.9%. The company’s production is impacted by the natural decline in the oil and natural gas fields. It remains exposed to acquisition-related risks as these assets contribute a sizable volume to production. TotalEnergies operates in some politically-troubled regions, and the ongoing Russia and Ukraine conflict might affect profitability.

However, TotalEnergies continues to gain from startups, increased commodity prices, well-spread LNG assets and an expanding upstream portfolio that has exposure to fast-growing hydrocarbon-producing regions.

TTE streamlines its portfolio through acquisitions, partnerships and divestitures. TotalEnergies is making regular investments to expand the renewable operation and aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include McDonald's Corporation (MCD), Prologis, Inc. (PLD), and Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras (PBR).

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>>>