For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 20, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights IBM Corporation (IBM) as the Bull of the Day and Marriott International (MAR ) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

As a result of its large non-US revenue base, IBM Corporation (IBM) has been better insulated from the recent weakness in the U.S. economy than many of its peers. IBM reported strong 2Q09 results ahead of our and Wall Street expectations.

Profitability in the quarter was fueled by higher gross profit margins as IBM shifted to high-margin software and services business. The company also raised its EPS outlook for fiscal 2009 from $9.20 to $9.70. However, currency fluctuations are taking a toll on its revenue, which may be critical to earnings growth over the next two years.

Moreover, the company has focused on driving its bottom line through cost-cutting efforts. IBM is well positioned to benefit from the market recovery. We maintain our Buy rating on IBM shares and maintain our six-month price target of $120.00.

Bear of the Day:

We maintain our Sell rating on shares of Marriott International (MAR ) following the release of second quarter results. Although Q2 earnings results exceeded our expectation, we have lowered our full-year EPS estimate.

The operating environment in the lodging sector is expected to remain weak throughout 2009, with substantial RevPAR declines forecasted.

Given our forecast for negative earnings growth in 2009, along with the ongoing uncertainty regarding the state of the economy and its potential impact on Marriott’s lodging and timeshare businesses, we rate the shares a Sell at this time.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Citi Profits on Smith Barney Sale 

Citigroup (C) today reported net income for 2Q09 at $4.3 billion, or $0.49 per diluted share. These results included a $6.7 billion after-tax gain associated with the sale of Smith Barney, which closed on June 1, 2009.

Excluding the one-time gain, the operating loss for the quarter was about $0.27 per share, which is better than the analysts’ estimates of a loss of $0.37 per share. Like Bank of America (BAC), the range of the analysts’ estimates for Citi was very wide — from a loss of 3 cents per share to a loss of 76 cents per share — thus the consensus does not mean much, in our view.

Total revenues were $30.0 billion, up $12.4 billion from 2Q08. Unlike some of the other big banks such as BAC and Goldman Sachs (GS), which had strong revenues from trading activities, Citi’s results benefited mainly from the sale of Smith Barney and the increasing values of some of its risky assets (favorable net write-ups and gains), relative to the prior year period. This was partially offset by the impact of foreign exchange and declines in Regional Consumer Banking revenues, primarily in credit cards business.

Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5507.

About the Bull and Bear of the Day

Every day, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research select two stocks that are likely to outperform (Bull) or underperform (Bear) the markets over the next 3-6 months.

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