The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Costco, PayPal, NextEra, Southern Copper and Loews

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 29, 2019 – 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: Costco COST, PayPal PYPL, NextEra NEE, Southern Copper Corporation SCCO and Loews L.

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Analyst Reports for Costco, PayPal and NextEra

The Zacks Research Daily presents the best research output of our analyst team. Today's Research Daily features updated research reports on 16 major stocks, including Costco, PayPal and NextEra. These research reports have been hand-picked from roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.

You can see all of today’s research reports here >>>

Costco’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Discount Retail industry over the past year, gaining +27% versus the industry's +14.8% increase. The Zacks analyst thinks Costco continues to be one of the dominant retail wholesalers based on the breadth and quality of merchandise offered. The stock has been gaining from sturdy comps and decent results.

The company posted a positive earnings surprise in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 but revenues fell short of expectations. Notably, the top and the bottom line continued to rise year over year. Certainly, Costco seems somewhat unfazed by tough retail scenario.

Growth strategies, increase in membership fees and sturdy e-commerce sales bode well. The company’s efforts have been driving traffic across online and brick-and-mortar platforms. However, any incremental investments or aggressive pricing strategy may hurt margins. Moreover, rising SG&A expenses and stiff competition also pose concerns.

Shares of PayPal have underperformed the Zacks Internet Software industry year to date (+27.8% vs. +30.9%). The Zacks analyst thinks PayPal’s portfolio strength remains its key catalyst. Venmo’s improving monetization efforts and rising adoption rate across various platforms are aiding the company’s total active accounts.

Further, robust mobile checkout services of One Touch are contributing to the company’s total payment volume growth. Also, growing momentum of PayPal’s core peer to peer is aiding in acceleration of payment volume.

Additionally, the company is riding on the benefits from its investment in MercadoLibre and increasing customer engagements on its platform. However, weak eBay performance remains a headwind. Further, negative impacts of sale of the U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio to Synchrony pose a threat to the company’s top line.

NextEra’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Electric Power industry in the past year, gaining +31.4% vs +11.9%. The Zacks analyst thinks NextEra’s investments in driving renewable operations through the “30 by 30” plan will help meet its goal to make its generation portfolio cleaner. Investments worth $39.1 billion in different projects over the 2019-2023 period will modernize and strengthen its infrastructure.

Focus on expanding operations in natural gas pipelines and further widening of business via acquisitions and organic growth will enable the company to achieve its long-term earnings growth target. However, its nature of business is subject to complex and comprehensive federal, state and other regulations.

That said, if planned nuclear plant outages last longer than expected or there is an unplanned outage, the company’s normal operations and profitability might be hindered. 

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Southern Copper Corporation and Loews.

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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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NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Loews Corporation (L) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Southern Copper Corporation (SCCO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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