The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: SAP, AbbVie, Sinopec, Cigna And Intuitive Surgical

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL –December 24, 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: SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) , AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) , Sinopec (NYSE:SNP) , Cigna (NYSE:CI) and Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) .

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Stock Reports for SAP, AbbVie and Sinopec

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 SAP SE, AbbVie and Sinopec. 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 >>>

SAP’s shares have underperformed the Zacks Computer Software industry year to date (+35% vs. +44.2%). The Zacks analyst believes that SAP is benefiting from strong growth in cloud and software revenues, and expanding customer base.

Robust adoption of S/4HANA, C/4HANA, Fieldglass, Concur and SuccessFactors Employee Central solutions hold promise. Further, SAP's alliances with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) favor business prospects. Moreover, synergies from Qualtrics acquisition are enabling SAP to bolster Customer Experience segment revenues.

Additionally, strong demand for the company’s Intelligent Spend offerings among enterprises holds promise. Nonetheless, integration risks related to acquisitions are likely to limit margin expansion. Moreover, increasing investments to enhance cloud-based offerings are anticipated to weigh on bottom-line growth at least in the near term.

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

Shares of AbbVie have gained +22.4% in the past three months against the Zacks Large-Cap Pharmaceuticals industry’s rise of +12%. The Zacks analyst believes that AbbVie’s Humira is performing well driven by strong demand trends amid new competition. Imbruvica has multibillion-dollar potential.

AbbVie has been successful in expanding approvals for its cancer drugs, Imbruvica and Venclexta. It also has an impressive late-stage pipeline. It gained approvals for two new drugs with significant potential, Skyrizi (risankizumab) and Rinvoq this year. Both are off to a strong start. The acquisition of Allergan (NYSE:AGN), if successful, should diversify AbbVie’s revenue base and accelerate its non-Humira business.

However, AbbVie’s shares have underperformed the industry this year so far. Sales erosion due to direct biosimilar competition to Humira in international markets is a big headwind. Also, the decline in HCV sales is a concern.

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

Sinopec's shares have lost -13% over the past six months against the Zacks Integrated Oil industry's decline of -5%. The Zacks analyst believes that the company has made major progress in identifying economically-viable oil & gas reserves. A huge scale of prospective new reserves was discovered in a number of prolific oil and gas resources like Sichuan Basin and Jiyang Depression.

Sinopec is among the largest integrated energy players in China, with significant presence in upstream, midstream and downstream businesses. Notably, Sinopec’s natural gas business has immense potential for growth over the coming years as China intends to move from coal to natural gas.

However, China’s bleak economic outlook will continue to hurt the firm’s refining business. With declining demand for oil products, the firm’s massive refining operations are likely to make lower contributions to earnings.

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

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Cigna and Intuitive Surgical.

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