The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: JinkoSolar Holding, Salesforce.com, Gap, Nike and Unilever
CHICAGO, Nov. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- 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 the JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS-Free Report), Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM-Free Report), The Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS-Free Report), Nike (NYSE:NKE-Free Report) and Unilever (NYSE:UL-Free Report).
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Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:
Strong Buy on JinkoSolar
On Nov 21, Zacks Investment Research upgraded JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS-Free Report) to a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Why the Upgrade?
This solar cell manufacturer has delivered positive earnings surprises in the last 2 quarters with an average beat of 594.3%. The strong performance has driven the company's earnings estimates higher.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2013 increased 295.6% in the last 7 days to 91 cents per share, reflecting estimated year-over-year growth of 108.9%. For 2014, the consensus increased 248.9% over the same time period to $1.71 per share, reflecting projected growth of 87.91%.
The company reported third quarter 2013 results with adjusted earnings per American Depositary Share ("ADS") of $1.36, much ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 35 cents. The results reflect a diversified customer base and improvement in operational efficiency in a rapidly changing solar power environment.
JinkoSolar's string of large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) supply orders from countries like Australia, South Africa and the U.K., effective project execution skills as well as favorable renewable policy adoption by the Chinese government have elevated its position in the market.
Gradually, the company has transformed its operations from a traditional manufacturer to a one-stop energy solution provider. This will definitely enlarge the company's customer base and market reach. In addition, the high quality cells and reasonable price attract customers from across the globe.
Salesforce Brings Out Cloud Platform
Enterprise cloud computing solutions provider, Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM-Free Report), has introduced Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud platform, which enables marketers to target and provide relevant information to their customers through email, mobile, social network and the web. The new cloud platform is part of the Salesforce1 Customer Platform.
Leveraging ExactTarget's digital marketing apps and platform and Salesforce's social marketing tools (Buddy Media, Radian6 and Social.com.), marketers can acquire customer data from various sources, connect with them and provide personalized and relevant product information.
Leading brands such as CareerBuilder, The Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS-Free Report), Nike (NYSE:NKE-Free Report) and Unilever (NYSE:UL-Free Report) are using the latest platform from Salesforce to better reach their customers.
Notably, Salesforce completed the ExactTarget acquisition in Jul 2013 for $2.5 billion. The acquisition has enhanced Salesforce's digital marketing capabilities across email, social networking and the web.
According to Gartner, the marketing segment within CRM grew 21% in 2012 and is expected to grow 21% through 2017. Thus, the ExactTarget acquisition will be beneficial for Salesforce in the long term. More so, as the acquisition has also positively impacted the company's top line in the last reported quarter. Buoyed by robust contribution from ExactTarget, Salesforce reported 36.5% year-over-year revenue growth.
Additionally, the company has recently announced a strategic alliance with Hewlett-Packard to offer customer relationship management services on HP's Converged Infrastructure. This new offering —Salesforce Superpod — is ideal for companies that have an extensive IT infrastructure, which requires a certain level of compliance and enterprise integration.
Therefore, the company's diverse cloud offerings and the stronger spending projection by Gartner are positives going forward. Salesforce's strategic acquisitions and related synergies are expected to remain long-term positives.
While the company's growth has not been too bad, its prospects have been rationalized somewhat by the renewed efforts of other tech giants, such as International Business Machines.
However, continued weakness in Europe, currency headwinds and increase in investments could pose challenges going forward.
Salesforce has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.
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