For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – May 01, 2017 –Zacks Equity Research highlights Cosan (NYSE: CZZ – Free Report ) as the Bull of the Day, CDW Corp (NASDAQ: CDW – Free Report ) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL – Free Report ).
Here is a synopsis of all three stocks:
Bull of the Day :
The market put together one heck of a run the last several trading days. We’ve seen a breakout on the small caps and the NASDAQ to new all-time highs. But the high beta stocks aren’t the only ones benefiting from the recent movement. The risk-on behavior has helped money flows to emerging markets and commodities. Today’s Bull of the Day is a stock that lies at the intersection of these two attractive areas of the financial world.
Cosan (NYSE:CZZ – Free Report ) is the leading global ethanol and sugar company in terms of production with low-cost, large-scale and integrated operations in Brazil. Their production is based on sugarcane, a competitive and viable feedstock for ethanol, sugar and energy because of its low production cost and high energy efficiency ratio relative to other ethanol sources, such as corn and sugarbeet.
The company is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) in an industry that ranks in the Top 24% of our Zacks Industry Rank. A big reason for the rank is the bullish move in earnings estimates for the current year. Just ninety days ago, analysts were expecting $1.11 in profits for Cosan. Revisions of these current year numbers have now pushed our Zacks Consensus Estimate from $1.11 to $2.05. Next year’s Zacks Consensus has increased from $1.95 to $2.40 over that same period.
Shares of Cosan have underperformed the Agriculture Products Industry so far this year. While the Industry is up 11.7% shares of Cosan have only added 2.4%. That may sound like a negative for the stocks but really that shows its potential to catch up with the rest of the industry.
Bear of the Day :
Sometimes I write a Bear of the Day article on a stock we basically all agree is going down the tubes. Other times, I write one and I get all sorts of hate speech because, well, we don’t all agree. Now I’m not here to come out and tell you that today’s pick is going to drop to zero. What I am going to do is tell you it is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), and you should do a little more digging before loading the boat.
I was actually surprised to see CDW Corp (NASDAQ: CDW – Free Report ) as a Zacks Rank # 5 (Strong Sell). For those of you who don’t know, CDW Corporation provides information technology (IT) solutions to business, government, education, and healthcare organizations in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company offers discrete hardware and software products, as well as integrated IT solutions, including mobility, security, data center optimization, cloud computing, virtualization, and collaboration.
Let me be clear here, things have been going fine over at CDW. However, analysts have been very silent about them recently. The last earnings estimate revision the company has seen took place sixty days ago. And that revision was to the downside where an analyst dropped their estimate for the current quarter down to 69 cents from 71 cents. While many other companies out there have seen estimates revised to the upside, the silence regarding CDW is what’s troubling.
Additional content:
3 Key Predictions for Apple's Q2 Earnings
Although critics will say that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL – Free Report ) has lost some of its luster over the past few years, you better believe that investors will be paying attention when the world’s largest publicly-traded company releases its fiscal second-quarter financial results in next week.
The technology behemoth has been one of the hottest stocks on Wall Street so far this year, and shares are up nearly 12% in just the last 12 weeks. Of course, if Apple wants to continue that momentum, it will have to deliver another solid quarterly earnings report on May 2.
Last quarter, the company posted earnings of $3.36 per share and revenues of $78.4 billion, easily topping the respective consensus estimates of $3.22 and $76.9 billion. Total iPhone unit sales grew 5% to about 78.3 million in the all-important holiday quarter, and Services revenue—the segment that includes the App Store, Apple Music, and Apple Pay—surged 18%.
So what’s in store for Apple this quarter? Well, Apple guided for revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion, and our current consensus estimates call for revenue of $52.61 billion and earnings of $2.01 per share.
Of course, earnings and revenue are just two of the many things investors will be looking at when Apple reports. Check out these three additional things to expect:
1. iPhone unit sales will come in at about 52 million
According to our consensus estimate, which compiles figures from 19 independent analysts, iPhone unit sales are expected to come in at 51.82 million this quarter. This is a slight uptick from the 51.2 million units sold in the year-ago quarter, and it should be encouraging to see continued growth in this segment after a brief stretch of slumping sales. Apple sold about 78.3 million iPhones in the previous quarter, which marked growth of about 5%.
2. Revenues from China will continue to be sluggish
Last year, Apple reported sales of $12.49 billion in the Greater China region. However, based on the estimates of four analysts, our consensus estimate calls for sales of $11.41 billion in the region this quarter. China is Apple’s second-largest market behind the Americas, but Chinese regulators have made operations more difficult for outside services that directly compete with the country’s domestic offerings. Add these conditions to the uncertainty that has surrounded the Chinese economy recently, and it’s easy to see why Apple might struggle in the region.
3. The Services unit will continue its impressive growth
As mentioned before, the growth of Apple’s Services unit was one of the most impressive parts of its last report. This quarter, our consensus estimate—based on 20 separate estimates—calls for Services revenue of $6.78 billion this quarter. This would represent growth of 13.2% from last year’s Q2 total of $5.99 billion. At least part of these gains can be attributed to the insane growth of Apple Music, the company’s music streaming service that reportedly has more than 40 million users.
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About the Bull and Bear of the Day
Every day, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research select two stocks that are likely to outperform (Bull) or underperform (Bear) the markets over the next 3-6 months.
About Zacks Equity Research
Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.
Continuous analyst coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons.
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Cosan Limited (CZZ): Free Stock Analysis Report
CDW Corporation (CDW): Free Stock Analysis Report
Apple Inc. (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report
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