For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – May 28, 2009 – 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: J.P. Morgan (JPM), BankUnited (BKUNA), Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC) and SanDisk (SNDK).

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Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

FDIC Funds Running Dry

It is very likely that the list of problem banks and their assets will continue to grow…the increase in the assets of problem banks is actually accelerating by increasing $60.6 billion in the first quarter, almost twice the $34.3 billion average increase per quarter during 2008.

In the 12 months to 3/31/09 there have been 44 failures with $381.4 billion in assets at a total cost to the fund of $20.1 billion. The 5.3% of failed assets cost to the fund over the last year is somewhat misleading since by far the largest failure was Washington Mutual, which was bought by J.P. Morgan (JPM) at no cost to the FDIC (but very generously backstopped by the Fed).

It is noteworthy that Wamu never showed up on the “problem bank” list. This is a good reminder than not all problem banks fail, and not all failures are identified as problem banks before they go under. The 23.2% cost of failed assets in the first quarter is much more representative of a typical bank failure.

Since the end of the first quarter, 15 more banks have failed, and one, BankUnited (BKUNA) had more assets ($12.8 billion) and cost the fund more ($4.9 billion) than all the failures of the first quarter combined. It is thus very likely that the fund is already approaching a single-digit basis-point coverage ratio of insured deposits.

While the big boys like Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC) may be in the process of raising enough capital to repay the TARP, there are many smaller banks which are in deep trouble. While individually they do not pose a systemic risk, collectively they will prove to be a significant drag on any economic recovery.

SanDisk Stock Up on Samsung Deal

Samsung and SanDisk (SNDK) have renewed a long-standing agreement on the supply of NAND flash memory (flash memory retains data after the device is turned off, NAND and NOR are the two types of flash memory).

This removes an uncertainty that Sandisk would not be able to supply its customers with flash memory if the agreement was not renewed. An aborted attempt by Samsung to buy Sandisk had been taken as a sign that Samsung may not renew the contract.

Samsung and Sandisk need each other. Samsung has the capacity (Sandisk also has supply agreements with Toshiba) and Sandisk has marketing channels that Samsung does not reach. Sandisk also has a patent portfolio that generates a stream of earnings and Samsung uses those patents.

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