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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Verizon Communications, PepsiCo, Biogen, Bank of New York ??? Mellon and Cerner

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 7, 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: Verizon Communications VZ, PepsiCo PEP, Biogen BIIB, The Bank of New York - Mellon BK and Cerner CERN.

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Stock Reports for Verizon, PepsiCo and Biogen

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 Verizon Communications, PepsiCo and Biogen. These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.

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You can see all of today’s research reports here >>>

Verizon’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Wireless National industry over the past year (7.4% vs. 5.3%). The Zacks analyst believes that Verizon has embarked on a new operating structure with Verizon 2.0 that aims to align the business model with evolving customer needs.

Focus on online content delivery, mobile video and online advertising will likely drive future growth. Verizon aims to cut costs through employee reduction and divestments as it ramps up investment in its next-generation 5G network, which is expected to be the next growth driver. The company has also upped the ante against rivals by launching the 5G Ultra Wideband network in select locations of the country.

However, it continues to struggle in a competitive U.S. wireless market. The company's wireline division is struggling with losses in access lines due to competitive pressure from VoIP service providers. Verizon is spending heavily on promotion and lucrative discounts to woo customers and this leads to margin contraction.

Shares of PepsiCo have gained 13.4% in the past six months, outperforming the Zacks Soft Drinks Beverages industry’s rise of 8% over the same period. The Zacks analyst believes that company’s productivity savings goal of at least $1 billion annually through 2023 bodes well.

The company’s earnings and sales beat in third-quarter 2019 was driven by strength in all segments and robust pricing. This marked its ninth sales beat in the last 11 quarters, with positive earnings surprise in 14 of the last 15 quarters. Moreover, PepsiCo now expects organic revenues for 2019 to meet or exceed 4% growth stated previously.

However, the unfavorable impact of ongoing investments to strengthen business, a higher tax rate, and the absence of asset sale and refranchising gains that occurred in 2018 are likely to hurt PepsiCo’s earnings in 2019. Adverse currency rates are also likely to hurt the company’s results in 2019.

Biogen’s shares have lost 5% in the past three months compared with the Zacks Biomedical and Genetics industry’s decline of 9.1%. The Zacks analyst likes Biogen’s efforts to diversify beyond MS to other areas like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's and stroke. Meanwhile, Spinraza has multi-billion dollar potential.

Biogen regularly in-licenses assets to build its pipeline with several candidates that have transformative potential. Several data readouts are expected in 2019/2020 with multiple potential launches in the early 2020s. However, Biogen is heavily reliant on sales of its drugs for MS, which is a highly competitive disease space. Potential competition to Spinraza from competitors’ gene therapy programs for SMA is a concern.

Though Biogen’s CNS pipeline is attractive, it is a high-risk area. The stock has underperformed the industry this year. Estimates have remained stable ahead of Q2 earnings. Biogen has a positive record of earnings surprises in the recent quarters.

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include The Bank of New York - Mellon and Cerner.

More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!

It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.

Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020.

Click here for the 6 trades >>

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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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The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BK) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Cerner Corporation (CERN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Pepsico, Inc. (PEP) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Biogen Inc. (BIIB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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