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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Amazon, American Express, Philip Morris, NIKE and Valero Energy
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For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – March 19, 2024 – 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: Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) , American Express Co. (AXP - Free Report) , Philip Morris International Inc. (PM - Free Report) , NIKE, Inc. (NKE - Free Report) and Valero Energy Corp. (VLO - Free Report) .
Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:
Top Stock Reports for Amazon.com, American Express and Philip Morris
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 Amazon.com, Inc., American Express Co. and Philip Morris International Inc. These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.
Amazon.com shares have outperformed the Zacks Internet - Commerce industry over the past year (+78.5% vs. +53.4%). The company is gaining on solid Prime momentum owing to ultrafast delivery services and strong content portfolio. Strengthening relationship with third-party sellers is a positive.
Additionally, strong adoption rate of AWS is aiding the company’s cloud dominance. Expanding AWS services portfolio is continuously helping Amazon in gaining further momentum among the customers. Robust Alexa skills and expanding smart home products portfolio are positives.
The company’s strong global presence and solid momentum among the small and medium businesses remain tailwinds. Growing capabilities in grocery, pharmacy, healthcare and autonomous driving are other positives. Also, deepening focus on generative AI is a major plus. However, adverse macroeconomic challenges remain concerns.
Shares of American Express have outperformed the Zacks Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry over the past year (+40.8% vs. +23.5%). The company’s growth initiatives, like launching new products, reaching new agreements and forging alliances, are boosting its revenues.
Consumer spending on T&E, which carries higher margins for AmEx, is advancing well. Its balance sheet looks strong with ample cash. Solid cash-generation abilities enable the pursuit of business investments and prudent deployment of capital via buybacks and dividends.
However, with higher utilization of the firm’s cards, expenses in the form of card member services and card maember rewards are likely to go up and strain its margins. Its current debt level amid a high-interest rate environment induces a rise in interest expenses. AmEx seems overvalued at the current price/earnings level. As such, the stock warrants a cautious stance.
Shares of Philip Morris have outperformed the Zacks Tobacco industry over the past year (+3.1% vs. -0.2%). The company has demonstrated impressive resilience amid rising costs due to its smoke-free strength. The company has been gaining from its pricing power. Higher pricing variance was an upside to the company’s performance in the fourth quarter of 2023 and is likely to remain a driver.
The consistent success of IQOS and the impressive growth of ZYN have further solidified the company’s position, keeping it well-placed to become a majority smoke-free company by 2030. For 2024, management expects net revenues to increase 6.5-8% on an organic basis.
However, growth-oriented investments, especially in IQOS ILUMA, may impact profits. Also, management expects the increased cost of leaf and wages to linger into 2024 before easing thereafter. Apart from this, Philip Morris has been witnessing soft cigarette volumes, which declined 1.4% in 2023.
Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include NIKE, Inc. and Valero Energy Corp.
Why Haven’t You Looked at Zacks' Top Stocks?
Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.0 average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +44.9%, +48.4% and +55.2% per year.
Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation.
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 Amazon, American Express, Philip Morris, NIKE and Valero Energy
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – March 19, 2024 – 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: Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) , American Express Co. (AXP - Free Report) , Philip Morris International Inc. (PM - Free Report) , NIKE, Inc. (NKE - Free Report) and Valero Energy Corp. (VLO - Free Report) .
Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:
Top Stock Reports for Amazon.com, American Express and Philip Morris
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 Amazon.com, Inc., American Express Co. and Philip Morris International 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 >>>
Amazon.com shares have outperformed the Zacks Internet - Commerce industry over the past year (+78.5% vs. +53.4%). The company is gaining on solid Prime momentum owing to ultrafast delivery services and strong content portfolio. Strengthening relationship with third-party sellers is a positive.
Additionally, strong adoption rate of AWS is aiding the company’s cloud dominance. Expanding AWS services portfolio is continuously helping Amazon in gaining further momentum among the customers. Robust Alexa skills and expanding smart home products portfolio are positives.
The company’s strong global presence and solid momentum among the small and medium businesses remain tailwinds. Growing capabilities in grocery, pharmacy, healthcare and autonomous driving are other positives. Also, deepening focus on generative AI is a major plus. However, adverse macroeconomic challenges remain concerns.
(You can read the full research report on Amazon.com here >>>)
Shares of American Express have outperformed the Zacks Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry over the past year (+40.8% vs. +23.5%). The company’s growth initiatives, like launching new products, reaching new agreements and forging alliances, are boosting its revenues.
Consumer spending on T&E, which carries higher margins for AmEx, is advancing well. Its balance sheet looks strong with ample cash. Solid cash-generation abilities enable the pursuit of business investments and prudent deployment of capital via buybacks and dividends.
However, with higher utilization of the firm’s cards, expenses in the form of card member services and card maember rewards are likely to go up and strain its margins. Its current debt level amid a high-interest rate environment induces a rise in interest expenses. AmEx seems overvalued at the current price/earnings level. As such, the stock warrants a cautious stance.
(You can read the full research report on American Express here >>>)
Shares of Philip Morris have outperformed the Zacks Tobacco industry over the past year (+3.1% vs. -0.2%). The company has demonstrated impressive resilience amid rising costs due to its smoke-free strength. The company has been gaining from its pricing power. Higher pricing variance was an upside to the company’s performance in the fourth quarter of 2023 and is likely to remain a driver.
The consistent success of IQOS and the impressive growth of ZYN have further solidified the company’s position, keeping it well-placed to become a majority smoke-free company by 2030. For 2024, management expects net revenues to increase 6.5-8% on an organic basis.
However, growth-oriented investments, especially in IQOS ILUMA, may impact profits. Also, management expects the increased cost of leaf and wages to linger into 2024 before easing thereafter. Apart from this, Philip Morris has been witnessing soft cigarette volumes, which declined 1.4% in 2023.
(You can read the full research report on Philip Morris here >>>)
Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include NIKE, Inc. and Valero Energy Corp.
Why Haven’t You Looked at Zacks' Top Stocks?
Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.0 average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +44.9%, +48.4% and +55.2% per year.
Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation.
See Stocks Free >>
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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.