Robinhood Markets and Goodyear Tire have been highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day

Chicago, IL – August 20, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Robinhood Markets HOOD as the Bull of the Day and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company GT as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Starbucks Corp. SBUX, McDonald’s MCD and Dutch Bros Coffee BROS.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks.

Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock Robinhood Markets has risen to become the foremost financial services platform for retail investors. Established in 2013 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the startup first rose to prominence by being the first mainstream broker to offer commission-free equity trading.

The platform has grown its user base considerably by “democratizing” finance through its commission-free trading and zero account minimum model. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Robinhood’s business exploded amid a red-hot market and many millennials working from home. However, behind its co-founder and CEO, Vlad Tenev, Robinhood has leveraged that success to diversify and grown its business beyond equity markets into credit and crypto markets.

Robinhood benefits dramatically in active markets. For instance, the trading volumes surged after the COVID-19 crash and subsequent bull market. Now, a similar roadmap is in store for the stock after the tariff-induced crash and robust bull market rebound of 2025.

Increased retail participation over the past few years has led to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.7% in the company’s transaction-based revenue segment. Meanwhile, annual revenue doubled from 2022 to 2024. In addition, the company turned profitable in 2024 for the first time and never looked back.

Robinhood also tends to beat Wall Street estimates. For example, the company has beaten Zacks Consensus Analyst Estimates in nine of the past ten quarters and surpassed those estimates by a healthy 19.46% margin in the past four.

CEO Vlad Tenev has built a career around democratizing finance, driving innovation, and embracing technology. With the massive success of the company’s core business, Tenev has been able to continuously deliver a plethora of new growth avenues, including:

· Prediction Markets: Users can bet on anything from economics to sports to politics to pop culture.

· Crypto Trading: Robinhood has dove headfirst into the crypto space. The company offers crypto trading and is looking to ‘tokenize’ crypto assets.

· Robinhood Gold: A premium Robinhood subscription with perks like higher interest, larger instant deposits, and research reports.

Wall Street analysts tracked by Zacks Investment Research anticipate that the company’s impressive fundamental performance will continue, with several analysts boosting their rating on the company over the past few months.

Robinhood’s journey from a startup to a leading financial platform is a testament to its disruptive business model and strategic evolution. By continuously innovating, the company has successfully diversified its revenue streams beyond commission-free trading.

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is one of the largest tire manufacturing companies in the world. In addition to its massive consumer tire business, the Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) company produces other rubber-related chemicals and specialty tires for off-road, aviation, and racing applications.

Goodyear Tire employs nearly 70,000 people and derives the majority of its revenue (~60%) from North America. However, it develops, manufactures, distributes, and sells tires throughout the Americas, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the Asia Pacific.

Though roughly half of Goodyear’s business is in North America, the Trump administration’s tariff policy is hurting the company. The company faces tariffs on consumer tires, imported raw materials, and commercial tariffs. Altogether, Goodyear estimates that these tariffs will result in an annual cost of around $350 million. Raw material costs are expected to rise by approximately $50 million in the third quarter, and they are seen as ballooning to a $180 million headwind in the fourth quarter.

Goodyear is in the process of retooling and making necessary technology changes that will lead to 2025 CAPEX spending of ~$900 million. The increased spending, a result of more complex tire designs, is leading to decreasing cash flows.

This year, Goodyear expects to sell fewer tires year-over-year worldwide because US wholesalers already have sufficient tires in stock. Meanwhile, demand is stagnant overseas, with a stagnant Asia-Pacific economic environment. In addition, Goodyear produced fewer tires in the second quarter, meaning that the company will have a more difficult time spreading its fixed costs, leading to an expected extra $50 million in costs.

GT shares are long-term underperformers. Over the past 5 years, the stock has been down 10%, while the S&P 500 Index has nearly doubled!

While Goodyear remains a global leader in tire manufacturing, the company faces significant headwinds, including rising tariff costs, declining sales, and relative price weakness.

Starbucks Corp. continues to face pressure in its core U.S. market, where comparable sales slipped 2% in the third quarter of fiscal 2025. Management is clear that turning around domestic performance will require more than operational fixes, it needs a wave of menu innovation to reenergize customers.

CEO Brian Niccol emphasized that the company is building momentum with its “Back to Starbucks” strategy, laying the groundwork for 2026 as the year of innovation. Starbucks is targeting beverages that align with consumer trends in health, customization and premium experiences.

A key launch is protein cold foam, a no-sugar option that adds 15 grams of protein to any cold beverage. Early testing showed strong demand, tapping into Cold Foam’s 23% year-over-year growth. Beyond that, Starbucks is experimenting with coconut water-based tea and coffee drinks, gluten-free and high-protein foods, and a new artisanal baked case to broaden appeal across dayparts.

The innovation push is carefully designed to avoid operational disruption. Starbucks is embedding barista feedback early in product development, ensuring drinks can be executed consistently within service time goals. By layering new beverages onto the newly rolled out Green Apron Service, a standardized operating model focused on speed and hospitality, the company hopes to pair menu excitement with a stronger in-store experience.

With Gen Z and millennial customers already driving engagement, Starbucks sees beverage innovation as a catalyst to restore positive transaction growth in the United States. While execution risks remain, the strategy signals that Starbucks is betting big on new drinks to reignite its sales momentum.

Starbucks’ innovation drive comes as rivals intensify their beverage strategies. McDonald’s, through its McCafé lineup, has been expanding cold and specialty drink options at accessible price points. MCD’s nationwide footprint and value-driven approach allow it to capture customers seeking convenience and affordability, a direct challenge to Starbucks’ premium positioning.

Meanwhile, Dutch Bros Coffee continues to win younger consumers with its vibrant, customizable drinks and energy-based beverages. Its emphasis on drive-thru speed and community-centric brand appeal has fueled rapid expansion, making it a growing disruptor in the specialty beverage space.

With McDonald’s leveraging scale and value, and Dutch Bros resonating with Gen Z, Starbucks’ upcoming beverage innovations, from protein cold foam to artisanal offerings, will need to strike a balance between differentiation and broad appeal to revive U.S. comparable sales.

Shares of Starbucks have lost 18.4% in the past six months compared with the industry’s decline of 7.6%.

From a valuation standpoint, Starbucks trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 2.7, below the industry’s average of 3.81.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SBUX’s fiscal 2025 EPS implies a decline of 32.6% year over year and the same for 2026 indicates a rise of 22.4%. The EPS estimates for fiscal 2025 and 2026 have declined in the past 30 days.

Starbucks currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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