For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – December 29, 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: Meta Platforms, Inc.
META
, Altria Group, Inc.
MO
, Applied Materials, Inc.
AMAT
, McCormick & Co., Inc.
MKC
and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.
HPE
.
Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:
Top Research Reports for Meta Platforms, Altria 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 Meta Platforms, Inc., Altria Group, Inc. and Applied Materials, Inc. These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.
Shares of
Meta Platforms
have been big-time laggards in 2022, with the stock down -65.4% in the year-to-date period vs. the -40.4% decline in Alphabet shares and the broader market’s -21% pullback. Driving Meta’s underperformance is the company’s aggressive spending plans for metaverse that many in the market see as the wrong strategy. On top of that is the cyclical downturn in the digital advertizing space as a result of macroeconomic factors.
Unfavorable forex, targeting and measurement headwinds due to Apple’s iOS changes, normalization of e-commerce after the pandemic peak and higher inflation are some of the other headwinds.
User base in Europe declined in the last reported quarter, with the fourth-quarter guidance reflecting macroeconomic and forex concerns. Weak advertising demand is a headwind. Meta expects Reels to monetize much slower than feed or stories. Shares have underperformed the industry in the past year.
However, Meta is benefiting from steady user growth across all regions, particularly Asia Pacific. Increased engagement for its products like Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook has been a major growth driver.
(You can
read the full research report on Meta Platforms here >>>
)
Shares of
Altria Group
have underperformed the Zacks Tobacco industry over the past year (-1.9% vs. +4.0%), but have held up really well relative to the broader market. The company’s revenues in the last reported quarter were hurt by the wine unit’s divestiture and soft shipment volumes in the Smokeable Products unit due to retail share losses and the industry’s rate of decline.
However, Altria Group has been gaining from its strong pricing power, which aided the bottom-line growth in the third quarter of 2022. Also, management remains optimistic about its journey toward a smoke-free future.
To this end, the company’s investment in on! is yielding well. The reported shipment volumes of on! surged roughly 70% in the third quarter. For 2022, management expects adjusted earnings in the band of $4.81-$4.89 per share, which indicates growth of 4.5-6%.
(You can
read the full research report on Altria Group here >>>
)
Shares of
Applied Materials
have underperformed the Zacks Semiconductor Equipment – Wafer Fabrication industry over the past year (-41.2% vs. -35.8%). The company is facing sluggishness in its Display and Adjacent Market segment remains a concern. Softness in the segment is expected to continue in the days ahead. Per our estimate, the segment is likely to witness a year-over-year fall of 47.6% in fiscal 2022. Further, mounting expenses and rising competition pose a risk to the company’s market position.
Nevertheless, Applied Materials is benefiting from strong momentum across Semiconductor Systems and Applied Global Services. Further, solid demand for silicon in several applications across various markets remains a tailwind.
Increased consumer 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. Strong momentum in conductor etches is benefiting the company’s position in DRAM and NAND.
(You can
read the full research report on Applied Materials here >>>
)
Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include McCormick & Co., Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.
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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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