Analyst Reports For Netflix, Halliburton & Disney

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Today's Research Daily features new research reports on 16 major stocks, including Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Disney (DIS).

Shares of Buy rated Halliburton have been strong performers this year, handily beating the Energy sector as a whole (the stock is up 44% year-to-date vs. 18.9% for the sector as a whole). The analyst likes the world’s second largest oilfield-services provider’s continued and effective cost management which helped it report better than expected quarterly results. Halliburton's 9th consecutive quarterly beat was also helped by improved utilization on the back of growing North American rig count. In fact, Halliburton has used the challenges prevailing in the industry to its advantage, mainly by offering low cost solutions that aids producers in churning out more by investing less. (You can read the full research report on Halliburton here>>)

Netflix shares struggled following this year, but have spiked following the strong quarterly report. The company delivered solid third-quarter 2016 results, exceeding its earlier projections on all key counts. The analyst is encouraged by robust new subscribers growth recorded during the quarter. In addition, the company also provided decent guidance for the current quarter especially for international subscriber additions. The streaming giant has been drawing strength from its growing portfolio of original content. This apart, it remains focused on international expansion and localization to solidify presence in its operating markets. (You can read the full research report on Netflix here>>)

Beyond Halliburton and Netflix, the picture emerging from the Q3 earnings season is reassuring and positive, as described in our weekly Earnings Trends report - Is the Earnings Improvement for Real?

With respect to the Q3 scorecard, we now have Q3 results from 99 S&P 500 members that combined account for 23.5% of the index's total market capitalization. Total earnings for these 99 companies are up 2.6% from the same period last year on 2.5% higher revenues, with 77.8% beating EPS estimates and 60.6% beating revenue estimates. This is better performance than we have seen from the same group of companies in other recent quarters.

Disney shares have been laggards lately - the stock is down 12.5% year-to-date. A big reason for the underperformance is uncertainty surrounding the company's ESPN unit in a changing media landscape owing to migration of subscribers to online TV. But the analyst likes Disney’s sturdy movie business and solid performance of its Parks & Resorts division. The success of movies also mean healthy business for its Consumer Products division as demand for the merchandise associated with successful movies usually skyrockets, as seen in case of Frozen. Further, Disney is also in the process of rolling out more themed attractions in parks and resorts (You can read the full research report on Disney here>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Eli Lilly (LLY), Bristol-Myers (BMY), and Sprint (S).

You can find all of today's stock research reports here>>

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Sheraz Mian

Director of Research

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