The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Johnson & Johnson, Honeywell, Morgan Stanley, Novartis and eBay

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – April 25, 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 Johnson & Johnson JNJ, Honeywell HON, Morgan Stanley MS, Novartis NVS and eBay EBAY.

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Research Reports for J&J, Honeywell and Morgan Stanley

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 Johnson & Johnson, Honeywell and Morgan Stanley. These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.

Johnson & Johnson’s shares have lost -12.1% in the last three months, underperforming the -9.6% decline of the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry. J&J beat estimates for both earnings and sales in the first quarter and upped its previously issued sales outlook for 2018.

Though quite a few key products in J&J’s portfolio like Remicade and Concerta are facing generic competition, the Zacks analyst thinks new products in all segments, successful label expansion of cancer drugs like Imbruvica and Darzalex and contribution from recent acquisitions will continue to drive top-line growth.

J&J is also making rapid progress with its pipeline and line extensions. Share buybacks and restructuring initiatives should provide bottom-line support. Headwinds like generics, pricing pressure, sluggish growth in the Medical Device segment and soft global market conditions remain.

Shares of Buy-ranked Honeywell have outperformed the Zacks Diversified Operations industry in the last one year, increasing +14.9% vs. a -12.8% decline. Honeywell’s first-quarter 2018 earnings trumped expectations and rose 17.5% year over year.

The impressive performance can primarily be attributed to solid performances from each of the four segments of the company. The Zacks analyst likes the company’s diligent focus on working capital management, free cash flow generation and a conservative balance sheet amid a challenging macroeconomic environment.

With a flexible yet disciplined focus on cost and productivity, Honeywell remains focused on increasing its presence in high-growth regions. Also, the company’s balanced mix of long- and short-cycle businesses along with a decent organic growth in new products and expansion in high-growth regions auger well on a long-term perspective. However, the company is susceptible to material price inflation, which might hurt its profitability.

Buy-rankedMorgan Stanley’s shares have underperformed the Zacks Investment Banking industry over the last six months (+6.2% vs. +12.4%). Yet, the company possesses an impressive earnings surprise history, beating expectations in each of the trailing four quarters. Its first-quarter 2018 results reflect a rebound in trading activities and improvement in advisory fees.

The company’s efforts to lower balance sheet risk and strengthen wealth management operations along with cost saving initiatives will continue to support growth. While higher interest expenses and muted investment banking performance are expected to hurt the company’s top-line growth, lower tax rates will aid profitability in the quarters ahead. Also, it will continue enhancing shareholder value through robust capital deployment activities.

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Novartis and eBay.

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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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eBay Inc. (EBAY) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Novartis AG (NVS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Honeywell International Inc. (HON) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Morgan Stanley (MS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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