For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – November 6, 2019 – Zacks Equity Research Shares of Groupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) as the Bull of the Day, Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) asthe Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Match.com (NASDAQ:MTCH) and WW International (NASDAQ:WW) .
Here is a synopsis of all four stocks:
Sometimes the best investment ideas sound crazy at first. To be fair, if they were the most obvious choice then they probably wouldn’t be great investments because everybody would be on board. Today’s Bull of the Day is an interesting story in a very risky market. But it may just be this risk that makes this one pay out in the long run.
Today’s Bull of the Day is Groupo Financiero Galicia Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A., a financial services holding company, provides various financial products and services in Argentina. The company operates through Banks, Regional Credit Cards, Insurance, and Other Businesses segments. It offers large-corporations banking, investment banking, and capital market services; middle-market banking; and banking services to agricultural sector.
The bear case here is obvious. Yes, I said BEAR case. Everybody knows Argentina has had a host of problems, most of them tied to the finances of the country as a whole. There have been defaults, restructured debt, huge inflationary periods, and a host of other problems. When you dig into the numbers of this particular stock, the bull case could overpower all this.
It is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) because analysts continue to issue earnings estimate revisions to the upside. The current year Zacks Consensus Estimate has gone up from $3.85 to $4.21. Next year’s number is up from $4.09 to $4.92. This would represent EPS growth of 17.27% for the current year and 16.82% for next year. That’s on projected revenue growth of 33.8% this year and 12.8% next year.
That sort of growth should command a serious multiple. The problem is, the uncertainty surrounding Argentina’s future is overshadowing the numbers. Currently, GGAL is trading at a P/E of less than 3x. To give you some perspective, the broad market trades more than 18x earnings.
This is a stock that was trading over $38 as recently as early August. Since then, the stock has tumbled, coming all the way down under $10 at the end of August. Today, the stock is sitting at $12.68.
Despite the broad market returning miles of smiles to investors, a handful of industries are still negative on the year. Among them, the Oil and Gas Equipment and Services industry. That industry is off 4.2% YTD. It’s made for plenty of frustration for investors in this industry. One of the stocks in this industry happens to be today’s Bear of the Day. I’m talking about Halliburton.
Halliburton Company provides a range of services and products to oil and natural gas companies worldwide. The company's Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services, including stimulation and sand control services; and cementing services, such as bonding the well, well casing, and casing equipment.
The company is currently a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) in an industry that ranks in the Bottom 9% of our Zacks Industry Rank. The reason for the unfavorable rank is the series of earnings estimate revisions coming in to the downside. Over the last thirty days, nine analysts have cut their estimates for the current year, while ten have done so for next year. That bearish sentiment has dropped the Zacks Consensus Estimate from $1.34 to $1.25 for the current year, and down from $1.84 to $1.45 for next year.
That sort of negative revision history has been haunting the stock for months now. The stock was trading close to $55 as recent as May of last year. Since then, prices have been spiraling downward. Shares hit a fresh 52-week low of $17.21 on August 27th, 2019. The stock is currently trading at $21.05.
Additional content:
Match.com, WW Report Q3 Earnings
Two subscription-based companies have put forth Q3 earnings after Tuesday's closing bell, with mostly better-than-expected results for both companies. They also saw subscriber growth increase year over year, always a good sign for such business models.
Match.com, parent company of a variety of dating platforms, including Tinder and OK Cupid, posted 51 cents per share for its Q3 earnings, on $541.5 million in quarterly revenues. These totals beat the 47 cents per share (itself a 20.5% rise year over year) and $539.25 million anticipated. Subscriber growth overall was 19% year over year to 9.6 million; international was up 29% from a year ago.
This marks the latest in a series of positive earnings surprises for Match.com, which last came up short of estimates in Q4 of 2017, which was the last of 4 straight misses. Match.com had carried a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) rating with a Value-Growth-Momentum score of B ahead of the earnings release.
WW International, formerly known as Weight Watchers, beat on its Q3 bottom line by a penny to 68 cents per share, on revenues of $349 million in the quarter, down a bit from the $356.6 million in the Zacks consensus, which itself was down 2.5% from year-ago sales tallies. Its 4.4 million end-of-period subscribers was up 6% year over year. Its sales on Digital platforms rose, while overall Operating and Net Income tumbled 20% and 30%, respectively.
A big push from Oprah Winfrey is setting the table for WW, which the company hopes will drive subscriber growth going forward. The company, which sported a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) rating and a Value-Growth-Momentum score of A ahead of the earnings release, has fallen 12% in late trading Tuesday.
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Match Group, Inc. (MTCH): Free Stock Analysis Report
Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (GGAL): Free Stock Analysis Report
Halliburton Company (HAL): Free Stock Analysis Report
Weight Watchers International Inc (WW): Free Stock Analysis Report
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