The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Philip Morris, PayPal, Dominion, Texas Instruments and PPG

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL –September 28, 2018 – 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: Philip Morris PM, PayPal PYPL, Dominion Energy D, Texas Instruments TXN and PPG Industries PPG.

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Stock Reports for Philip Morris, PayPal and Dominion Energy

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 Philip Morris, PayPal, and Dominion Energy. These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.

Philip Morris’ shares have underperformed the Zacks Tobacco industry over the past six months (-19.3% vs. -13.9%). The Zacks analyst thinks the company has been gaining from solid revenues in the reduced risk products (RRPs) category.

The company is making constant efforts to expand in this space. In fact, the top and the bottom lines grew year over year during the second quarter of 2018, courtesy of favorable cigarette pricing and solid RRPs performance, with the latter being bolstered by the success of iQOS. To sustain growth in this category, the company plans to invest close to $600 million in 2018.

Further, the company continues to expect price hikes to aid maintaining margin growth. However, a persistent decline in cigarette volumes, stemming from consumers’ rising health consciousness and stringent government regulations on tobacco products, is a major headwind. These factors, which have been affecting the industry for a while, caused a 1.5% drop in Phillip Morris’ cigarette volumes during second quarter.

Shares of PayPal have outperformed the Zacks Internet Software industry over the past year (+40.5% vs. +35.6%). PayPal continues to witness expanding customer base with the help of its robust Venmo, Choice and One Touch. Also, the company’s tie-up with MasterCard is aiding the adoption rate of Venmo.

The company’s ongoing partnership with ShinhanCard remains positive for its presence in South Korea. Also, its extended partnership with Google and eBay will continue to strengthen its customer base further. This will keep adding strength to PayPal’s total payments volume.

The Zacks analyst thinks an expanding product & services portfolio and global presence will continue to benefit the company’s market share. However, exposure to foreign exchange and intensifying competition are major concerns.

Buy rankedDominion Energy’s shares have gained +0.6% over the last three months, outperforming the Zacks Electric Power industry, which has lost -1.2% over the same period. Dominion Energy’s Cove Point Liquefaction project has started operations and is contributing as per expectations. The Zacks analyst thinks Dominion Energy is benefiting from its regulated growth projects and synergies from Questar’s acquisition.

The company’s expansion of electric transmission, natural gas facilities and midstream assets are strong positives. Its merger deal with SCANA received FERC Nod and is going to be immediately accretive to earnings of the company.  However, any delay in ongoing capital projects could adversely impact profitability of the company.

Reduction in solar investment tax credits and share dilution may affect its future results. The company and its gas unit’s dependency upon third-party producers for natural gas supply increases risk.

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Texas Instruments and PPG Industries.

5 Medical Stocks to Buy Now

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Click here to see the 5 stocks >>

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

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Dominion Energy Inc. (D) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TXN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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