The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Alibaba, Pfizer, S&P Global, Novo Nordisk and Duke Energy

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – April 14, 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: Alibaba Group BABA, Pfizer PFE, S&P Global SPGI, Novo Nordisk NVO and Duke Energy DUK.

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Analyst Reports for Alibaba, Pfizer and S&P Global

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 Alibaba Group, Pfizer and S&P Global. 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 >>>

Alibaba’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Internet Commerce industry over the past six months (+14.7% vs. +11.9%). The Zacks analyst believes that Alibaba continues to benefit from strong growth in metrics.

Further, Alibaba’s strengthening cloud business with its expanding customer base continues to drive its performance. Its New Retail strategy is also gaining momentum. This is aiding growth in Tmall Import, Hema fresh food grocery business and Intime Department Stores. However, higher costs associated with new initiatives remain a major concern.

Also, uncertain economy and macro headwinds in China are major concerns. In addition, rising competition from e-commerce players poses a risk. However, the steady improvement in core commerce and strong cloud business remain positives.

Shares of Pfizer have lost 15.9% over the past year against the Zacks Large-Cap Pharmaceuticals industry’s rise of +3.6%. The Zacks analyst believes that the Consumer Healthcare joint venture with Glaxo, the Array acquisition and the pending merger of the Upjohn unit with Mylan, if successful, will make Pfizer a smaller company which should see better revenue growth as the Lyrica LOE cliff will go away.

The company expects continued strong growth of key brands like Ibrance, Inlyta and Eliquis to drive sales in 2020. It has a strong portfolio of new drugs, which will accelerate growth in 2020 and beyond.

However, Lyrica generic erosion, currency headwinds, pricing pressure and uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic are near-term top-line headwinds. Estimates have declined slightly ahead of Q1 earnings. Pfizer has a positive record of earnings surprises in the recent quarters.

S&P Global’s shares have lost 2.3% over the past three months against the Zacks Business Information Services industry’s fall of -9.8%. The Zacks analyst believes that the company remains well poised to gain from growing demand for business information services. Buyouts have helped it innovate, increase differentiated content and develop new products.

The outperformance partly reflects better-than-expected earnings and revenue performance in the last three quarters. Effective management execution has helped it generate solid cash flow which is utilized for growth initiatives.

Dividend payments and share buybacks boost investors' confidence and positively impact earnings per share. On the flip side, S&P Global remains vulnerable to proceedings, investigations and inquiries with respect to the ratings provided, leading to legal charges, damages or fines. Lower bank loan ratings activity has been weighing on the company's revenues.

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Novo Nordisk and Duke Energy.

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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/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Duke Energy Corporation (DUK) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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