Chicago, IL – March 31, 2023 – 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: The Walt Disney Co. DIS, Marathon Petroleum Corp. MPC, Moderna, Inc. MRNA, Nucor Corp. NUE and CenterPoint Energy, Inc. CNP.
Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:
Stock Reports for Walt Disney, Marathon Petroleum and Moderna
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 The Walt Disney Co., Marathon Petroleum Corp., and Moderna, Inc. 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 >>>
Shares of Walt Disney have gained +11.5% over the year-to-date period against the Zacks Media Conglomerates industry’s gain of +13.5%. The Zacks analyst believes that Disney is benefiting from the growing popularity of Disney+, owing to a strong content portfolio and a cheaper bundle offering. The strong line-up of movies that includes The Little Mermaid; Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3; Elemental; Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Haunted Mansion bodes well for the Media and Entertainment Distribution segment.
Revival in Parks, Experiences and Products businesses is encouraging. Theme Park business is likely to gain from strong demand across both domestic and international parks. However, Disney+’s profitability continues to be negatively impacted by higher programming and production costs across Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu.
(You can read the full research report on Walt Disney here >>>)
Marathon Petroleum shares have outperformed the Zacks Oil and Gas - Refining and Marketing industry over the past year (+56.8% vs. +8.3%). The Zacks analyst believes that Marathon Petroleum’s sale of its Speedway retail business for $21 billion provided the downstream operator with a much-needed cash infusion. The deal also comes with a 15-year fuel supply agreement per which Marathon Petroleum will supply 7.7 billion gallons of gasoline per year to 7-Eleven, thus ensuring a steady revenue stream.
But while refining fundamentals have certainly brightened from the covid lows, the sector is not out of the woods yet in terms of cash flows that remain anemic and well below the pre-crisis levels. In particular, the weakness in business travel demand remains a complicating factor.
(You can read the full research report on Marathon Petroleum here >>>)
Shares of Moderna have declined -17.2% over the year-to-date period against the Zacks Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry’s decline of -4.8%. The Zacks analyst believes that lower cases of COVID-19 infections are fueling uncertainty regarding demand for vaccinations, resulting in declining product sales. The launch of COVID vaccines by competitors like Sanofi and Novavax will also likely lead to a loss of product sales.
Currently, Moderna is conducting three ongoing late-stage studies evaluating RSV, CMV, and influenza vaccines. However, these candidates are still years away from commercialization. Nonetheless, Moderna expects to record a minimum of around $5.0 billion from COVID vaccine sales in 2023.
(You can read the full research report on Moderna here >>>)
Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Nucor Corp. and CenterPoint Energy, Inc.
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