The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Microsoft, Chevron, Accenture, Coca-Cola And Charles Schwab

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – February 28, 2020 – 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: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) , Chevron (NYSE:CVX) , Accenture (NYSE:ACN) , Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) .

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Analyst Reports for Microsoft, Chevron and Accenture

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 Microsoft, Chevron and Accenture. 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 >>>

Microsoft’s shares have outperformed the S&P 500 over the past year (+51.9% vs. +11%). The Zacks analyst believes that the ongoing expansion in Microsoft Teams’ subscriber base improved the company’s competitive edge in the enterprise communication market against Slack and Zoom.

Microsoft’s stellar second-quarter fiscal 2020 results reflected robust Commercial business and Azure’s expanding customer base. Furthermore, the company is well poised to widen the total addressable market through acquisitions of GitHub and PlayFab.

However, management doesn’t expect to meet its previous projection for third-quarter fiscal 2020 revenues at More Personal Computing due to the coronavirus outbreak in China. This, in turn, raises investors’ concerns, at least in the near term.

Shares of Chevron have lost 16.9% in the past three months against the Zacks Integrated Oil industry’s fall of 18.8%. The Zacks analyst believes that Chevron is one of the best-placed global integrated oil companies to achieve sustainable production ramp-up. America’s No. 2 energy company’s existing project pipeline is among the best in the industry, thanks to planned expansion in the lucrative Permian Basin.

Chevron’s substantial Permian holdings of 2.2 million net acres realized production growth of 154 MBOE/d in 2019 with Chevron targeting output of 900 MBOE/d in 2023. Chevron’s well economics in the unconventional play also continues to improve as it has been able to achieve a 40% reduction in its expenses since 2015. Consequently, Chevron is viewed a preferred energy major to own now.

Accenture’s shares have lost -0.6% over the past six months against the Zacks Consulting industry’s rise of +1.2%. The Zacks analyst believes that the company’s strong operating cash flow has helped it reward its shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases, and pursue opportunities in areas that show true potential.

The company has been strategically enhancing its cloud and digital marketing suite through acquisitions and partnerships. Accenture is currently a global leader in the Salesforce implementation service space.

However, Accenture continues to face pricing pressure due to significant competition from strong companies like Genpact, Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH) and Infosys. Global presence exposes Accenture to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. Buyout-related integration risks is a concern.

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Coca-Cola and Charles Schwab.

Today's Best Stocks from Zacks

Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%.

This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year.

See their latest picks free >>

Media Contact

Zacks Investment Research

800-767-3771 ext. 9339

support@zacks.com

http://www.zacks.com

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 http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.