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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Microsoft, Facebook, Alphabet, Zoom Video Communications and Cisco Systems
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For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – May 1, 2020 – 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: Microsoft Corporation (MSFT - Free Report) , Facebook, Inc. , Alphabet, Inc. (GOOGL - Free Report) , Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (ZM - Free Report) and Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO - Free Report) .
Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:
Mega-Cap Tech Players Riding High on the Work-from-Home Model
Microsoft Corporation, which reported fiscal third-quarter earnings on Apr 29, recorded $35 billion in revenues, increasing 15% from $30.57 billion on an annualized basis. The steep rise was fueled by its cloud business. Also, Facebook, Inc., which announced its first-quarter results, registered revenues of $17.7 billion, up nearly 18% from $15.1 billion reported in the first quarter of 2019.
The coronavirus pandemic is aiding mega-cap tech companies at a time when most companies are going for cost cutting and layoffs as the economy is shrinking. Much like Microsoft and Facebook, other big players in the tech sector too have been benefiting as an increasing number of people are working and learning from home. This has seen huge traction in video conferencing apps, computer peripherals and hardware and other networking equipment.
Microsoft, Facebook Brave the Odds
Microsoft said that Teams now has more than 75 million daily active users, up from over 44 million in mid-March. The company’s More Personal Computing segment, which comprises Bing, Windows, Surface and Xbox, delivered $11 billion in revenues.
CEO Satya Nadella said there were over 200 million meeting participants in one day this month through Teams. Both Teams and Azure saw increased usage during the coronavirus pandemic. Also, the company witnessed revenue growth from Surface devices and Windows licenses from device makers as more people took to the work-and-learn from home model.
Facebook’s daily monthly users increased to 2.99 billion from 2.89 billion in the previous quarter. The social media giant also said that it is now seeing 800 million daily active users engaging with Facebook and Instagram livestreams. Microsoft and Facebook each carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Microsoft and Facebook’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year are 16.9% and 11.7%, respectively. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Work-From-Home Concept Helping Tech Giants
Microsoft and Facebook’s results, along with Alphabet, Inc.’s on Apr 29, once again show that tech giants have been the big gainers so far, at a time when unemployment is skyrocketing and economy is bleeding. Alphabet’s shares have jumped 20.9% over the past 30 days.
However, the work-from-home concept has been proving beneficial for these companies. Last week, Facebook rolled out a range of videoconferencing features including a new tool Messenger Rooms, which will allow users to host video calls of up to 50 people.
Also, Facebook has doubled its WhatsApp’s video call person limit from four people to eight. A day earlier, Alphabet announced that Google Meet will be made available for free to all Google account users for a limited period starting next month.
Needless to say, tech giants are now relying more on cloud services and are trying to rake in more revenues by rolling out new features of their videoconferencing apps. Facebook and Google’s recent moves are giving competition to Zoom Video Communications, Inc.’s Zoom, Houseparty and Microsoft’s Teams and Skype, which have seen their usage skyrocket over the past couple of months. Zoom sports a Zacks Rank #1. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 22.9%.
Microsoft, Zoom, Cisco Systems, Inc. and Alphabet have also announced updates on their video meeting tools while reporting record growth since the lockdowns began. Cisco carries a Zacks Rank #3. The company’s shares have gained 11.6% in the past one month.
With the majority of people now either working or learning from home, many tech companies are moving the bulk of their workload to the cloud. This has also seen a surge in demand for products and services of companies dealing in communication network, audio and video network and hardware and computer peripherals.
Today’s Best Stocks from Zacks
Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%.
This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year.
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 http://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Microsoft, Facebook, Alphabet, Zoom Video Communications and Cisco Systems
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – May 1, 2020 – 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: Microsoft Corporation (MSFT - Free Report) , Facebook, Inc. , Alphabet, Inc. (GOOGL - Free Report) , Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (ZM - Free Report) and Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO - Free Report) .
Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:
Mega-Cap Tech Players Riding High on the Work-from-Home Model
Microsoft Corporation, which reported fiscal third-quarter earnings on Apr 29, recorded $35 billion in revenues, increasing 15% from $30.57 billion on an annualized basis. The steep rise was fueled by its cloud business. Also, Facebook, Inc., which announced its first-quarter results, registered revenues of $17.7 billion, up nearly 18% from $15.1 billion reported in the first quarter of 2019.
The coronavirus pandemic is aiding mega-cap tech companies at a time when most companies are going for cost cutting and layoffs as the economy is shrinking. Much like Microsoft and Facebook, other big players in the tech sector too have been benefiting as an increasing number of people are working and learning from home. This has seen huge traction in video conferencing apps, computer peripherals and hardware and other networking equipment.
Microsoft, Facebook Brave the Odds
Microsoft said that Teams now has more than 75 million daily active users, up from over 44 million in mid-March. The company’s More Personal Computing segment, which comprises Bing, Windows, Surface and Xbox, delivered $11 billion in revenues.
CEO Satya Nadella said there were over 200 million meeting participants in one day this month through Teams. Both Teams and Azure saw increased usage during the coronavirus pandemic. Also, the company witnessed revenue growth from Surface devices and Windows licenses from device makers as more people took to the work-and-learn from home model.
Facebook’s daily monthly users increased to 2.99 billion from 2.89 billion in the previous quarter. The social media giant also said that it is now seeing 800 million daily active users engaging with Facebook and Instagram livestreams. Microsoft and Facebook each carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Microsoft and Facebook’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year are 16.9% and 11.7%, respectively. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Work-From-Home Concept Helping Tech Giants
Microsoft and Facebook’s results, along with Alphabet, Inc.’s on Apr 29, once again show that tech giants have been the big gainers so far, at a time when unemployment is skyrocketing and economy is bleeding. Alphabet’s shares have jumped 20.9% over the past 30 days.
However, the work-from-home concept has been proving beneficial for these companies. Last week, Facebook rolled out a range of videoconferencing features including a new tool Messenger Rooms, which will allow users to host video calls of up to 50 people.
Also, Facebook has doubled its WhatsApp’s video call person limit from four people to eight. A day earlier, Alphabet announced that Google Meet will be made available for free to all Google account users for a limited period starting next month.
Needless to say, tech giants are now relying more on cloud services and are trying to rake in more revenues by rolling out new features of their videoconferencing apps. Facebook and Google’s recent moves are giving competition to Zoom Video Communications, Inc.’s Zoom, Houseparty and Microsoft’s Teams and Skype, which have seen their usage skyrocket over the past couple of months. Zoom sports a Zacks Rank #1. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 22.9%.
Microsoft, Zoom, Cisco Systems, Inc. and Alphabet have also announced updates on their video meeting tools while reporting record growth since the lockdowns began. Cisco carries a Zacks Rank #3. The company’s shares have gained 11.6% in the past one month.
With the majority of people now either working or learning from home, many tech companies are moving the bulk of their workload to the cloud. This has also seen a surge in demand for products and services of companies dealing in communication network, audio and video network and hardware and computer peripherals.
Today’s Best Stocks from Zacks
Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%.
This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year.
See their latest picks 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 http://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.