The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Facebook, Comcast, AbbVie, Union Pacific And Air Products

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – May 1, 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 Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) , Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) , AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) , Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) and Air Products (NYSE:APD) .

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Stock Reports for Facebook, Comcast and AbbVie

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 Facebook, Comcast and AbbVie. 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 >>>

Buy-ranked Facebook’s shares have gained +48.6% year to date, outperforming the S&P 500’s increase of +17.1% during the same period. Facebook reported impressive first-quarter 2019 results, driven by solid mobile ad revenues that benefited from impression growth on both Instagram Stories and Feed, and Facebook News Feed.

Asia-Pacific remained the company’s fastest growing market, driven by user growth in India, Indonesia and the Philippines. The Zacks analyst thinks that although focus on security will likely negatively impact some advertisers’ ability to run legitimate ads on the platform, Stories are increasingly becoming an important growth opportunity for advertisers.

Interactive Stories Ads on Instagram are expected to improve interaction among people, businesses and advertisers. Further, the Checkout feature on Instagram is part of Facebook’s e-commerce endeavors. However, continued mix shift toward Stories is expected to hurt ARPU. Increasing regulatory headwinds are also a concern.

(You can read the full research report on Facebook here >>>).

Shares of Buy-ranked Comcast have outperformed the Zacks Cable Television industry in the past year, gaining +35.5% vs. +23%. Comcast’s first-quarter 2019 results benefited from solid growth in the number of residential high-speed Internet customers.

The Zacks analyst thinks the company’s strategy to market broadband-only packages to customers is benefiting top-line growth. Further, expanding Wi-Fi coverage along with innovative xFi control features is improving customer experience.

The company’s Xfinity Mobile is now used by more than one million customers. Wireless revenues also grew strongly in the quarter, driven by expanding customer base. Further, the Sky acquisition expanded Comcast’s international reach. Sky’s content strength is a major growth driver. However, the company continues to lose voice and video subscribers due to cord-cutting and stiff competition. Additionally, its high debt level is a headwind.

(You can read the full research report on Comcast here >>>).

Buy-ranked AbbVie’s shares have gained +3.1% in the past six months, outperforming the Zacks Large-Cap Pharmaceuticals industry's decline of -0.4%. AbbVie beat estimates for both earnings and sales in the first quarter. The Zacks analyst thinks AbbVie’s key drug, Humira is seeing robust growth in the United States based on strong demand trends despite new competition.

Moreover, Imbruvica has multibillion dollar potential. Mavyret has become a significant contributor to sales in a short time on the market. AbbVie has also been successful in expanding approvals for its cancer drugs, Imbruvica and Venclexta.

AbbVie has an impressive late-stage pipeline comprising several products with multibillion-dollar potential expected to be launched in the near term. Sales erosion due to direct biosimilar competition to Humira in international markets will be a big headwind in 2019. Also, costs to support expected new product/line extension launches should hurt profits in 2019.

(You can read the full research report on AbbVie here >>>).

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Union Pacific and Air Products.

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