For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – August 3, 2026 – Zacks Equity Research shares Ciena Corp. CIEN as the Bull of the Day and Boston Beer Co. Inc. SAM as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on NVIDIA Corp. NVDA Sandisk Corp. SNDK.
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock Ciena Corp. is a leading provider of optical networking equipment, software, and services. Ciena is best known for its optical networking solutions, which use light signals over fiber-optic cables to transmit data across vast distances at the speed of light.
Simply put, Ciena serves as the ‘plumbing’ of the digital world, building the high-tech pipes, switches, and software that move massive amounts of data across the internet. The company manufactures the essential hardware and software for numerous big tech and telecom carriers that help deliver internet service to end users.
Ciena Benefits from the AI Revolution
Already, the artificial intelligence buildout is the largest industrial buildout in history (by spending). That said, the latest earnings reports from big tech companies prove that the trend of mind-boggling AI spending is still accelerating. Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta Platforms spent a combined $165 billion on CAPEX in Q2 (an 87% year-over-year increase). Additionally, several of these companies upped forward CAPEX guidance.
That’s good news for Ciena. While NVIDIA GPUs serve as the computational engines for training and running AI models, Ciena builds the pipes that move the data. As AI models expand, single data centers cannot house and power all the compute under one roof. Instead, AI infrastructure is transforming into “AI” factories scattered in different locations. Without high-performance optical networks like Ciena, NVDA GPU clusters sit inactive, waiting for more data.
CIEN: AI-Driven Growth & Backlog
Ciena is witnessing encouraging growth trends amid higher network traffic and bandwidth consumption across cloud and service provider environments. Customers are prioritizing investments in network infrastructure to support AI model training, data ingestion, and inference workloads. The latest Zacks Consensus Analyst Estimates project that CIEN’s annual EPS will jump triple digits in 2026 and 47% in 2027. Meanwhile, the company sports a record backlog, providing investors with multi-year growth visibility and confidence.
CIEN Successfully Tests 200-day MA
CIEN shares have finally retreated after a massive multi-year advance. Last week, the stock bounced off the 200-day moving average, signaling renewed demand.
Bottom Line
As hyperscalers scale out distributed AI factories, high-speed optical networking infrastructure becomes a vital link that prevents high-cost GPU clusters from going idle. With triple digit EPS growth on the horizon and a record backlog, CIEN shares are poised to rally.
Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) Boston Beer Co. Inc. is one of the largest alcohol companies in the United States. The Boston, MA-based company produces beer, malt beverages, and cider products at company-owned breweries. Its popular products include the flagship beer Samuel Adams, Dogfish Head beer, the Twisted Tea malt beverage, Truly Hard Seltzer, and the Angry Orchard cider brand. The company has also expanded to the low calories’ alcohol market with its “Sinless Vodka” offering.
Americans Are Drinking Less Alcohol
Alcohol consumption trends in the United States are extremely unfavorable currently. According to the latest Gallup poll numbers, roughly 54% drink alcohol (down 8% in just three years). For the first time, a majority of Americans believe that even moderate drinking (1-2 drinks a day) is bad for health.
Additionally, the explosion of GLP-1 weight loss drug consumption from companies like Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly has further impacted demand. Recent clinical studies show that these drugs cause even less alcohol consumption by dialing down the brain’s reward pathways and dopamine responses.
SAM EPS Growth Slows Amid Waning Demand
To make matters worse, younger generations are drinking even less alcohol due to health reasons. In other words, the waning alcohol demand trend is likely to only intensify in time. Meanwhile, more than a third of consumers are cutting back on alcohol purchases due to higher prices, while others turn to alternatives that are growing in popularity, such as cannabis.
Since 2022, Boston Beer’s annual earnings per share have fallen each year.
For now, there appears to be no end in sight to this troubling trend. Zacks Consensus Analyst Estimates expect negative revenue growth through 2027.
Worse off, Twisted Tea and Truly, two of the company’s key brands, continue to lose volume and market share.
Tariffs and Commodity Costs Limit Margin Upside
With demand slowing, the only way for Boston Beer to generate more favorable earnings is to increase profit margins. However, the company faces significant headwinds due to tariff costs, which are expected to increase to $20-$30 million in 2026 versus ~$11 million in 2025. Also, aluminum, energy, and freight costs remain an issue.
Valuation is Steep Compared to Competition
Although SAM shares have underperformed dramatically, they are still expensive compared to other alcohol companies. SAM has a P/E ratio of 20.42x while the Beverage-Alcohol Industry has a P/E of just 14.08x.
Bottom Line
With American alcohol consumption near historic lows, Boston Beer Company is fighting an uphill battle. Core brands are losing market share, tariff costs are weighing on margins, and revenue growth has stalled.
Additional content:
NVIDIA vs. Sandisk: Which AI Stock Could Deliver Bigger Returns?
As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the technology landscape, both NVIDIA Corp. and a much smaller company, Sandisk Corp., have benefited from the transformative trend. But which AI stock provides greater upside potential in the future? Let’s take a closer look –
The Bullish Case for NVDA Stock
Strong demand for NVIDIA’s cutting-edge AI chips and platforms is driving revenue growth. For the fiscal first quarter of 2027, NVIDIA’s revenues were $81.6 billion, up 85% year over year and 20% sequentially, according to the company’s press release.
NVIDIA’s data center revenues hit a record $75.2 billion, up 92% year over year and 21% quarter over quarter. NVIDIA’s dominance in the data center business indicated that spending on AI infrastructure was strong, and cloud providers invested heavily in the company’s graphics processing units.
Management further expects AI demand to remain robust, as they project NVIDIA’s fiscal second-quarter 2027 revenues to come in at $91 billion, plus or minus 2%. But NVIDIA isn’t just increasing sales; it’s also maintaining a healthy profit margin.
NVIDIA expects its non-GAAP gross margin to be 75%, plus or minus 0.5% in the fiscal second quarter, unchanged from the 75% reported in the fiscal first quarter.
The Bullish Case for SNDK Stock
Sandisk has successfully expanded its presence among high-value customers as demand for its AI-related memory solutions continues to grow. A favorable pricing environment is further supporting its growth prospects, making it a desirable AI memory investment.
For the fiscal third quarter of 2026, Sandisk’s revenues were $5.95 billion, up 97% quarter over quarter and well above its own expectations, according to investor.sandisk.com. The company further expects revenues to improve to $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2026.
The company’s earnings growth is also improving sequentially, with management projecting non-GAAP earnings per share of $30 to $33 for the fiscal fourth quarter compared with $23.41 in the fiscal third quarter.
NVIDIA or SanDisk: Which AI Stock Has Greater Upside?
NVIDIA’s strong data center growth, steady profit margins and upbeat outlook should act as a catalyst for the stock. But let’s admit that, so far, that hasn’t been the case. Since releasing its fiscal first-quarter earnings, NVIDIA’s stock has declined and is up a meager 4.9% year to date. This is because after years of exceptional growth, investors’ expectations for NVIDIA’s earnings are extremely high. They are also concerned that any slowdown in future AI spending could weigh on NVIDIA’s performance.
While NVIDIA’s management expects to maintain a steady profit margin, current U.S. export curbs on chip sales to China have limited NVIDIA’s access to a potential market, creating pressure on margins. Additionally, geopolitical tensions could disrupt supply chains, giving NVIDIA little room for expansion.
On the other hand, Sandisk’s latest quarterly results show that strong AI memory demand is driving revenue and profitability growth, supporting a positive share price outlook. Moreover, its multi-year strategic partnerships through New Business Model agreements in the fiscal third quarter are strengthening customer relationships, enhancing revenue visibility, and increasing the predictability of long-term cash flows, which supports further upside in its share price.
Sandisk’s shares have already soared 457.4% this year, yet the company has more room for growth as it benefits from the AI memory boom, even as NVIDIA remains a dominant AI chip company.
Brokers also see greater upside potential in Sandisk than NVIDIA. The average short-term price target for SNDK stock is $2,389.42, representing a 135.2% upside from its last closing price of $1,015.89. The highest price target stands at $3,169, suggesting a potential upside of 211.9%.
The average short-term price target for NVDA stock is $305.85, implying a 61% upside from its last closing price of $190.01. The highest price target stands at $500, representing a potential upside of 163.1%.
For now, both Sandisk and NVIDIA have a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 stocks here.
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