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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Roche, BlackRock, Square, Infosys and Moody's

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – January 12, 2021 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Roche Holding AG (RHHBY - Free Report) , BlackRock, Inc. (BLK - Free Report) , Square, Inc. (SQ - Free Report) , Infosys Limited (INFY - Free Report)  and Moody's Corporation (MCO - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Research Reports for Roche, BlackRock and Square

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 Roche, BlackRock and Square. 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 >>>

Roche shares have modestly underperformed the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry over the past year (+3.6% vs. +4%). The Zacks analyst believes that label expansion of Tecentriq into additional indications should drive sales. Roche's recent efforts to diversify its portfolio should reap benefits. Strategic acquisitions should strengthen the pipeline.

Roche's performance in 2020 was pretty ho-hum due to the COVID-19 adversity and competition from biosimilars. While sales in the first quarter were strong, the metric declined in the second quarter and again stabilized somewhat in the third.

Although growth in Ocrevus, Perjeta, Tecentriq and Hemlibra maintained momentum, COVID-19 disruptions and biosimilar competition for Herceptin, MabThera and Avastin weighed on the solid performances. Nevertheless, the Diagnostics division was boosted by the launch of diagnostic products for COVID-19 and should maintain this uptrend. 

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

Shares of BlackRock have gained +36.9% in the last six months against the Zacks Investment Management industry's gain of +27.7% on the back of expanding footprint and market share.

Its initiatives to restructure the equity business along with its inorganic growth efforts will likely keep supporting top-line growth. Further, solid assets under management (AUM) balance are expected to continue to aid revenue growth despite the ongoing concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak.

Given a solid liquidity position, BlackRock's capital deployments look sustainable. However, persistently increasing expenses (owing to higher administration costs) are expected to hurt the bottom line. Also, the company's high dependence on overseas revenues makes us apprehensive.

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

Square shares have gained +30.4% over the past three months against the Zacks Internet Software industry's rise of +13.9%. The Zacks analyst believes that Square is gaining on strong Cash App engagement and its expanding customer base.

Further, rising bitcoin revenues owing to robust Cash App are contributing well to the top-line. Also, strong adoption of Cash Card is a major positive. Additionally, the company's strengthening momentum in online channels and growing card-not-present GPV are expected to remain tailwinds.

Moreover, robust online products, such as Square Online Store, Invoices, Virtual Terminal and eCommerce API are expected to accelerate the GPV growth in the near term. Further, solid acquisition of net-new transacting active Cash App customers is likely to continue driving the top line growth. However, higher investments and increasing product development expenses, and COVID-19 induced uncertainties remain concerns.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Infosys and Moody's.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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