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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Apple, PNC Financial, Twitter, Northrop Grumman and TJX

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – January 23, 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: Apple AAPL, PNC Financial PNC, Twitter TWTR, Northrop Grumman NOC and TJX Companies TJX.

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Stock Reports for Apple, PNC Financial and Twitter

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 Apple, PNC Financial and Twitter. 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 >>>

Apple’s shares have declined -11.4% in the past year and have underperformed the broader market with the S&P 500 losing -5.9% over the same period. Apple cut its first-quarter fiscal 2019 sales guidance citing weak demand in Greater China and fewer upgrades to its flagship device.

Reportedly, the company has also lowered new iPhone production plan by almost 10% for the next three months. Apart from weak China demand, Apple is suffering from its failure to penetrate rapidly growing but price sensitive markets of Asia, particularly India. The company continues to lose share in the smartphone market due to increasing competition from Chinese handset makers.

Nevertheless, the Zacks analyst thinks its services segment is likely to grow strongly driven by increasing adoption of Apple Music & Apple Pay. Further, robust demand for wearables is noteworthy. Meanwhile, estimates have been stable lately ahead of the company’s Q1 earnings release. The company has positive record of earnings surprises in recent quarters.

Shares of PNC Financial have underperformed the Zacks Major Regional Banks industry over the past six months, decreasing 13.1% vs. -8.8%. Yet, the company has an impressive earnings surprise history, having surpassed expectations in three of the trailing four quarters.

Fourth-quarter results were affected by decline in fee income and higher provisions. Yet, expanding margins and higher loans came as tailwinds. The Zacks analyst likes the company's efforts to expand middle market lending franchise and investments in digital products and services.

Moreover, involvement in strategic acquisitions helped it in boosting fee income. PNC Financial's top line continues to benefit from rising rate environment as well. However, the company’s rising cost base deters bottom-line growth. Also, lack of diversification in its loan portfolio is a concern.

Strong-Buy rankedTwitter’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Computer Software industry in the past year, gaining +46.2% vs. +5.8%. Twitter continues to add new features and ramp up its security measures to lure users to its platform and boost engagement levels.

The Zacks analyst thinks the company’s investment in series of live streaming deals is a positive. Twitter is also benefiting from strong growth in international markets and video advertisements. Growing adoption of video ad products like Video Website Cards & Video App Cards is driving top line for Twitter.

Notably, the company has a positive record of earnings surprises in recent quarters. However, lack of revenue diversification is a major concern for the company. Moreover, Twitter is now facing civil proceedings in Russia for failing to comply with local data laws, which is a headwind.

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Northrop Grumman and TJX Companies.

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Zacks Investment Research

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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/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.


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The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc (PNC) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Twitter, Inc. (TWTR) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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