Hot or Not, Stock Market Edition: 12/19/2025

It’s Friday! Here’s a brief education on today’s market movers and shakers: 

• Hot: AbbVie (ABBV) catches fresh upgrade; Broadcom (AVGO) surfs the AI wave
• Not: Uranium Energy (UEC) faces skepticism; Prosperity Bancshares (PB) concerns analysts

P.S. For more stocks making moves, check out our Zen Ratings Upgrades & Downgrades screener.

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🔥 HOT: Despite some recent choppiness, AbbVie (ABBV) is quietly up 27% in the past year. What's driving the momentum? A blend of AI-powered innovation and relative resilience. AbbVie's involvement in Cradle's AI-driven protein engineering platform — serving six of the top 25 pharma leaders — could accelerate drug discovery potential for the company. Our Zen Ratings paint an optimistic picture of the stock — it’s currently rated a B (Buy), though it has flirted with an A (Strong Buy) rating a few days in the past week. (Zen Ratings are updated daily.) Component-wise, ABBV earns A grades for Safety and Industry positioning, with B grades for Financials, Momentum, and Sentiment. For income-focused investors, this looks like a jet-fueled moment for a pharma stalwart.

🥶 NOT: After Prosperity Bancshares (PB) was recently featured in an article entitled "3 Unpopular Stocks That Concern Us,” we took a look at the fundamentals. Indeed, they paint a dismal picture. The stock is up 10% in the past month, but its prospects look grim as regional banks face headwinds from rate uncertainty and credit quality concerns. In our Zen Ratings system, PB was just downgraded to an F (Strong Sell) rating, with equally disappointing Component Grades: F for Growth and D for Sentiment, and ho-hum C grades for Value, Momentum, Safety, Financials, and AI. With the Bank industry only earning a D rating right now, forward-looking investors may find better opportunities elsewhere. 

🔥 HOT: Hot, hot, hot! Broadcom (AVGO) has climbed over 30% year to date overall — but a recent pullback could be a great time to buy. Here’s why it’s hot: 1) Q4 earnings confirmed the company's position at the core of AI infrastructure, with double-digit revenue growth driven by hyperscaler demand for custom AI chips. 2) Broadcom's asset-light AI strategy — designing chips without heavy capex — is generating robust free cash flow and a $51 billion backlog. 3) Analysts are bullish, projecting as much as 53% potential upside in the coming year. Additionally, the stock just earned a Zen Rating upgrade from C (Hold) to B (Buy). Its Component Grades are overall solid, with B ratings for Momentum, Sentiment, Financials, and AI, but a C for Safety reflects recent volatility. Despite the recent pullback, AVGO’s recent upgrade to Buy reflects confidence that AI infrastructure demand will outweigh margin headwinds. For growth investors willing to ride some chop, AVGO looks positioned to gallop ahead.

🥶 NOT: Uranium Energy (UEC) is up an impressive 52% YTD, catching a tailwind from renewed nuclear enthusiasm. So what’s the problem? UEC’s fundamentals don’t seem to match the hype. The stock earns a dismal Zen Rating of F (Strong Sell), ranking 9th out of just 11 uranium peers (Industry rating: F). Its Component Grades are similarly disturbing: F grades for Zen Rating, Sentiment, and Safety; D grades for Financials and AI; C grades for Value, Growth, and Momentum. The fundamentals suggest the recent surge could be driven more by sector rotation than company-specific catalysts; unless you're betting purely on a uranium supply squeeze, this F-rated stock is stuck at a red light.

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