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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Alphabet, Bank of America, PepsiCo, Eli Lilly and Intuitive Surgical

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 1, 2018 – 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 Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) , Bank of America (BAC - Free Report) , PepsiCo (PEP - Free Report) , Eli Lilly (LLY - Free Report) and Intuitive Surgical (ISRG - Free Report) .

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Research Reports for Alphabet, Bank of America and PepsiCo

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 Alphabet, Bank of America and PepsiCo. 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 >>>

Alphabet’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Internet Services industry over the past year (the stock is up +24% vs. a -2.7% decline for the industry). The Zacks analyst thinks Alphabet's robust mobile growth, strong network advertising revenues, cloud, hardware and Play revenues are driving factors. Alphabet's focus on innovation, AI, cloud, home automation space, strategic acquisitions and Android OS should continue to aid its top-line growth.

Further, its partnership with PayPal remains positive. Also, the company has shown good execution to date, more or less maintaining its dominant share in a competitive, fast-growing search market. However, the company suffers from litigation issues which might hurt its profitability.

Moreover, it's increased spending on its consumer gadgets, YouTube video app and cloud computing services remain concerns. In addition, rising competition in the online advertisement market poses serious risk to the company's position.

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

Shares of Bank of America have outperformed the Zacks Major Regional Banks over the past three months, gaining +6.2% vs. +3.5%. Also, the company possesses an impressive earnings surprise history, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters.

The Zacks analyst thinks rise in loan and deposit balances, higher interest rates and efforts to manage expenses as well as expansion into new markets are likely to support profitability. Also, lower tax rates, strong balance sheet position and easing of banking regulations will aid growth.

However, a fall in mortgage banking income due to lower volumes and a decline in refinancing activity along with uncertainty related to performance of capital markets remain major concerns. These are expected to hurt the bank's revenues to some extent.

(You can read the full research report on Bank of America here >>>).

PepsiCo’s shares have gained +2% in the past three months, outperforming the Zacks Soft Beverages industry's increase of +0.5%, driven by a solid earnings trend with beat recorded in the last 10 quarters, including second-quarter 2018. The Zacks analyst thinks strong performances in its international division, backed by higher revenue growth in developing and emerging markets have been aiding results.

Further, the company has reported positive sales surprise in six of the last eight quarters. The company is also gaining from significant strength in the snacks business, which has mostly offset the sluggishness in beverage category.

Moreover, the company’s product innovations to include healthier food assortments and non-carbonated drinks in its portfolio should boost sales. However, consumers’ awareness on health and wellness, alongside new taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and growing regulatory pressures are affecting CSD sales.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Eli Lilly and Intuitive Surgical.

Wall Street’s Next Amazon

Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius.

Click for details >>

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons.

Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News

Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has nearly tripled the market from 1988 through 2015. Its average gain has been a stellar +26% per year. See these high-potential stocks free >>.

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