The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Fortinet, Ameriprise Financial, Lowe's Companies, Synopsys and NVIDIA
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – June 5, 2020 – 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: Fortinet Inc. FTNT, Ameriprise Financial Inc. AMP, Lowe's Companies Inc. LOW, Synopsys Inc. SNPS and NVIDIA Corp. NVDA.
Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:
S&P 500 Records Historically High 50-Day Rally: 5 Top Picks
The dream run of Wall Street's new bull market seems unstoppable at the moment. Notably, the new bull run began in mid-April after all three major stock indexes — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite — broke out from the coronavirus-induced short bear market.
Meanwhile, the broad-market S&P 500 Index achieved a milestone registering the highest ever 50-day rally since the inception of this index in 1957.
The S&P 500 Achieves a Milestone
On Jun 3, the S&P 500 gained 1.4% to close at 3,112.87, its highest finish since Mar 4. The benchmark index rallied 37.7% over the last 50 trading days. Per LPL Financial, this marked the highest 50-day return of the index since 1957.
Notably, Jun 3 marked the first four-day winning streak of the S&P 500 since early February. The index is currently 8.7% below its all-time high of 3,393.52 recorded on Feb 19. The index has rallied an astonishing 41.7% till Jun 3 from its recently recorded lowest level of 2,191.86 on Mar 23. Additionally, the benchmark needs to gain 3.34% more to become positive year to date.
The S&P 500's closing level at Jun 3 was well above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages of 2,819.18 and 3,005.31, respectively. In financial literature, the 50-day moving average line is generally recognized as the short-term support level, while the 200-day moving average is considered a long-term trend setter.
Will the Rally Continue?
According to LPL Financial, historically the S&P 500 index provided 100% positive returns after six months and 12 months for all other largest 50-day rallies. The average 6-month and 1-year returns were 10.2% and 17.3%, respectively. Going by the history, the benchmark index will continue its momentum over the next one year.
Meanwhile, the market's worst is behind us. An unprecedented $8 trillion stimulus injected by the U.S. government and the Fed will create significant pent-up demand. The central bank's unlimited asset purchase program and maintaining a 0% interest rate policy have created a strong credit market to sustain business recovery.
Moreover, slowing down of the coronavirus outbreak and death count, and gradual reopening of the U.S. economy after nearly two months of lockdown, will encourage business activities and hike consumer spending. This will drive the U.S. GDP in the second half of this year. A series of better-than-expected economic data, released recently, clearly showed that the U.S. economy is bottoming out.
Our Top Picks
We have narrowed down our search to five S&P 500 stocks that popped more than 20% in the past month and still have upside. Each of our picks carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Fortinet Inc. is a provider of network security appliances and Unified Threat Management network security solutions to enterprises, service providers and government entities worldwide. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 11.3% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 6.6% over the past 30 days. The stock has jumped 35.2% in the past month.
Ameriprise Financial Inc. is a leading asset management company. It operates through five segments: Advice & Wealth Management, Asset Management , Annuities, Protection and Corporate & Other. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 3.2% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 5.9% over the past 30 days. The stock has climbed 34% in the past month.
Lowe's Companies Inc. is one of the world’s leading home improvement retailers, offering services to homeowners, renters and commercial business customers. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 13.5% for the current year (ending January 2021). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 10.8% over the past 30 days. The stock has soared 23.8% in the past month.
Synopsys Inc. is a leading vendor of electronic design automation software offering a full suite of products used in the logic synthesis and functional verification phases of chip design, including a broad array of reusable design building blocks. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 15.6% for the current year (ending October 2020). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved by 1.2% over the past 30 days. The stock has surged 21.9% in the past month.
NVIDIA Corp. is the worldwide leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the graphic processing unit, or GPU. It operates in two segments, GPU and Tegra Processor. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 34.4% for the current year (ending January 2021). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 1.2% over the past 7 days. The stock has advanced 20.4% in the past month.
These Stocks Are Poised to Soar Past the Pandemic
The COVID-19 outbreak has shifted consumer behavior dramatically, and a handful of high-tech companies have stepped up to keep America running. Right now, investors in these companies have a shot at serious profits. For example, Zoom jumped 108.5% in less than 4 months while most other stocks were sinking.
Our research shows that 5 cutting-edge stocks could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for “stay at home” technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of this decade, especially for those who get in early.
See the 5 high-tech stocks now>>
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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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