The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Merck, Lilly, Charter, Alibaba and Charles Schwab

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL –November 29, 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: Merck MRK, Eli Lilly LLY, Charter Communications CHTR, Alibaba Group BABA and Charles Schwab SCHW.

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Top Research Reports for Merck, Lilly and Charter Communications

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 Merck, Eli Lilly and Charter Communications. 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 >>>

Merck’s shares have outperformed the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry year to date (+11.7% vs. +6.2%). The Zacks analyst believes that Merck’s products like Keytruda, Lynparza and Bridion are driving sales.

Keytruda sales are gaining from continued uptake in lung cancer and increased usage in other cancer indications. Keytruda has strong growth prospects based on increased utilization, recent approvals for new indications and potential additional approvals worldwide. Animal health and vaccine products are also performing strongly and remain core growth drivers for Merck.

However, generic competition for several drugs and pricing pressure will continue to be overhangs on the top line. Rising competitive pressure on the diabetes franchise and on products like Isentress and Zepatier remains a concern.

(You can read the full research report on Merck here >>>)

Shares of Eli Lilly have gained 5.8% in the past three months against the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry’s rise of 8.1%. The Zacks analyst believes that Lilly’s revenue growth is being driven by higher demand for its newer drugs including Trulicity, Jardiance, Taltz, Verzenio and new migraine drug, Emgality.

Lilly has made significant pipeline progress in the past year with several positive late-stage data readouts, multiple approvals and regulatory submissions. Lilly also added promising new pipeline assets through business development deals.

However, rising competitive pressure on Lilly’s drugs, generic competition for several drugs including Cialis, rising pricing pressure in the United States, price cuts in some international markets, currency headwinds and the impact of the failed Lartruvo study are putting pressure on the top line.

(You can read the full research report on Eli Lilly here >>>)

Charter Communications' shares have gained 23.5% over the past six months against the Zacks Cable TV industry's rise of 7.3%. The Zacks analyst believes that the company is benefiting from growth in Internet, mobile, commercial and video revenues.

Increase in Internet speed at no extra cost is also aiding subscriber growth. Additionally, Charter’s spectrum mobile products are gaining traction and subscriber base is increasing rapidly. Launch of spectrum mobile services to small and medium business customers is a key catalyst. Improving free cash flow is a growth driver.

However, commercial revenues continued to suffer due to migration of customers to Spectrum pricing, and packaging from Legacy TWC and Legacy Bright House. Further, Charter persistently loses video subscribers, primarily due to cord-cutting and intense competition from streaming service providers like Netflix and Amazon.

(You can read the full research report on Charter Communications here >>>)

Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Alibaba Group and Charles Schwab.

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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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Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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