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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Altria, American Express, U.S. Bancorp, T-Mobile and Humana

The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Altria, American Express, U.S. Bancorp, T-Mobile and Humana

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL –November 13, 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: Altria MO, American Express AXP, U.S. Bancorp USB, T-Mobile US TMUS and Humana HUM.

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Stock Reports for Altria, AmEx and U.S. Bancorp

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 Altria (MO), American Express (AXP) and U.S. Bancorp (USB). These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.

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Altria’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Tobacco industry over the past three months (+7.5% vs. -1.4%). The company has been delivering year-over-year bottom-line growth for quite some time and maintained the upside in third-quarter 2018.

Earnings during the quarter was mainly backed by lower outstanding shares and reduced income tax. Consistent solid performance propelled management to raise 2018 view. The Zacks analyst thinks Altria has been gaining from the rising popularity of Smokeless products. Pricing also continues to drive the company’s revenues in the smokeable and smokeless segments.

On the flip side, stern FDA regulations combined with increased health consciousness has been taking a toll on the cigarette category. Notably, cigarette shipment volumes fell 3.5% year over year during third quarter owing to decline in retail share and unfavorable trade inventory movements. Additionally, the company’s wine category has also been sluggish, thanks to stiff competition.

Shares of Buy-ranked American Express are up +15.3% over the past year, outperforming the Zacks Financial Miscellaneous Services industry, which has declined -13.4% over the same period. American Express’s third-quarter earnings per share beat expectations by 5.6% and increased 25.3% year over year. Higher card member spending, loans and fee income aided earnings.

The Zacks analyst thinks a solid market position, strength in card business and significant opportunities from the secular shift toward electronic payments are growth drivers. It continues to witness strong loan growth and credit metrics. Its international business also seems attractive.

However, it faces an increase in reward expenses, led by enhancements of its U.S. platinum products. Cost of card member services has been increasing over the past three years and it continued to elevate this year as well, reflecting higher engagement levels across its premium travel services. It has also been witnessing an increase in the provision of loan losses for the past two and a half years.

Buy-ranked U.S. Bancorp’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Major Banks industry over the past six months, gaining +3.8% vs -6.5%. The company possesses an impressive earnings surprise history, beating expectations in all the trailing four quarters.

Third-quarter 2018 earnings reflect higher revenues, along with loan growth and reduced provisions. However, lower mortgage banking revenues and escalating expenses were major drags. The Zacks analyst thinks U.S. Bancorp's prospects will likely get support from its solid business model, core franchise, lower tax rate, rising interest rate and diverse revenue streams.

Also, its organic growth remains solid and will likely benefit from the improving economic scenario. Though escalating expenses due to its ongoing investments in technology and likely increase in legal expenses remain concerns, U.S. Bancorp remains well poised to grow through acquisitions.

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include T-Mobile US (TMUS) and Humana (HUM).

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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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U.S. Bancorp (USB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
American Express Company (AXP) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Humana Inc. (HUM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Altria Group, Inc. (MO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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