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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights UnitedHealth Group, Costco Wholesale and Applied Materials
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For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – February 11, 2022 – 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: UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH - Free Report) , Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST - Free Report) , and Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT - Free Report) .
Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:
Top Research Reports for UnitedHealth, Costco and Applied Materials
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 UnitedHealth Group Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp., and Applied Materials, Inc. These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.
Shares of UnitedHealth have outperformed the Zacks Medical Insurance industry over the past year (+51.7% vs. +47.4%) on the back of continued strong growth at Optum and UnitedHealthcare segments.
UNH has also been benefiting from a strong market position as well as new deals, renewed agreements and expansion of service offerings. Its solid health services segment provides diversification benefits. A sturdy balance sheet and solid cash generation abilities enable investments as well as prudent capital deployment. Softness in commercial business due to the pandemic-related volatilities have been weighing on the margins, though.
Costco shares have gained +19.4% in the past six months against the Zacks Discount Retail industry’s rise of +0.1%. The Zacks analyst believes that Costco’s strategy to sell products at heavily discounted prices has helped it remain on a growth track as cash-strapped customers continue to reckon it as a viable option for low-cost necessities.
Costco’s growth strategies, better price management, decent membership trend and increasing penetration of e-commerce business are other catalysts for growth. COST put up a decent performance in first-quarter fiscal 2022, wherein both the top and the bottom lines surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Supply chain bottlenecks and higher labor and freight costs remain as major concerns, though.
Shares of Applied Materials have lost -6.2% in the last three months against the Zacks Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry’s loss of –12.2%. Market uncertainties, mounting expenses as well as rising competition pose risk to the company’s market position.
The Zacks analyst, however, believes that Applied Materials has been benefiting from strong momentum across Semiconductor Systems and Applied Global Services. Increased customer spending in foundry and logic on the back of rising need for specialty nodes in automotive, power, 5G rollout, IoT, communications and image sensor markets, is a major positive.
Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) and Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (CDNS).
7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days
Just released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers "Most Likely for Early Price Pops."
Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +25.4% per year. So be sure to give these hand-picked 7 your immediate attention.
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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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights UnitedHealth Group, Costco Wholesale and Applied Materials
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – February 11, 2022 – 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: UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH - Free Report) , Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST - Free Report) , and Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT - Free Report) .
Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:
Top Research Reports for UnitedHealth, Costco and Applied Materials
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 UnitedHealth Group Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp., and Applied Materials, Inc. 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 UnitedHealth have outperformed the Zacks Medical Insurance industry over the past year (+51.7% vs. +47.4%) on the back of continued strong growth at Optum and UnitedHealthcare segments.
UNH has also been benefiting from a strong market position as well as new deals, renewed agreements and expansion of service offerings. Its solid health services segment provides diversification benefits. A sturdy balance sheet and solid cash generation abilities enable investments as well as prudent capital deployment. Softness in commercial business due to the pandemic-related volatilities have been weighing on the margins, though.
(You can read the full research report on UnitedHealth here >>>)
Costco shares have gained +19.4% in the past six months against the Zacks Discount Retail industry’s rise of +0.1%. The Zacks analyst believes that Costco’s strategy to sell products at heavily discounted prices has helped it remain on a growth track as cash-strapped customers continue to reckon it as a viable option for low-cost necessities.
Costco’s growth strategies, better price management, decent membership trend and increasing penetration of e-commerce business are other catalysts for growth. COST put up a decent performance in first-quarter fiscal 2022, wherein both the top and the bottom lines surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Supply chain bottlenecks and higher labor and freight costs remain as major concerns, though.
(You can read the full research report on Costco here >>>)
Shares of Applied Materials have lost -6.2% in the last three months against the Zacks Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry’s loss of –12.2%. Market uncertainties, mounting expenses as well as rising competition pose risk to the company’s market position.
The Zacks analyst, however, believes that Applied Materials has been benefiting from strong momentum across Semiconductor Systems and Applied Global Services. Increased customer spending in foundry and logic on the back of rising need for specialty nodes in automotive, power, 5G rollout, IoT, communications and image sensor markets, is a major positive.
(You can read the full research report on Applied Materials here >>>)
Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) and Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (CDNS).
7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days
Just released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers "Most Likely for Early Price Pops."
Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +25.4% per year. So be sure to give these hand-picked 7 your immediate attention.
See them now >>
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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.