Royal Wedding In Focus

With a highly anticipated royal wedding on the docket for this weekend — if you’ve been living under a rock, Prince Harry will be wed to American actress and humanitarian activist Meghan Markle Saturday, mid-day in England and very early in the a.m. U.S. time — we thought it might be worthwhile to take a peek at the performance of British-oriented stocks. Especially now that the Brexit decision voted on nearly 2 years ago is finally being enacted, we may be seeing different forecasts for some of our favorite English stocks.

This is hardly the only article featuring such equities, by the way, even here at Zacks.com. We published a separate study of top-rated British companies earlier this week here: Royal Wedding, Record Job Growth Aid U.K. Economy: 5 Picks

Integrated oil super-major BP (LON:BP) Inc. (NYSE:BP) is clearly not feeling any negative effects from Brexit activity; Brent crude oil prices recently having hit $80 per barrel are assisting this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company, with its Zacks Style Score (Value - Growth - Momentum) of A. Its neighbors in the sector are also doing well overall — BP sits in the top 13% of Zacks Industry Rank and top 25% in Sector Rank.

Shares are down slightly in today’s pre-market, but have been steadily climbing back from the fall in oil prices a few years back. That said, BP shares are still off their multi-year highs experienced just prior to the company’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which was raging at this time 8 years ago. But BP stock is up a couple dollars per share over the past month.

Big Pharma company AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) also boasts a Zacks Style Score of A, with a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). However, it resides in a sector within the bottom 31% on the Zacks scale. The company is well diversified, but did suffer a setback recently with its asthma treatment Fasenra having failed a COPD study. Shares are down a bit ahead of the opening bell today, but continue to trade in a range just beneath its all-time highs hit just a few years ago.

County Kent’s own Delphi Automotive (NYSE:APTV) , an auto tech specialty company featuring solutions in auto emissions and fuel economy, currently holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). However, its Style Score is D, on relatively lagging Growth and Momentum. But it proudly hails at all-time market highs, even if it closed slightly lower than yesterday’s record high $98.50 per share (U.S.).