Rating agency A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength ratings (FSR) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of the property and casualty (P&C) and life and health insurance subsidiaries of Assurant Inc. (AIZ). Additionally, A.M. Best has affirmed the issuer credit ratings of "bbb" and debt ratings of Assurant. Along with affirming the ratings of the parent, A.M. Best has also upgraded the FSR of four of its operating subsidiaries to "A" from "A-" and ICRs to "a" from "a-" with a stable outlook for all. The four subsidiaries are American Reliable Insurance Company, Voyager Indemnity Insurance Company, Reliable Lloyds Insurance Company and Caribbean American Property Insurance Company. A.M. Best acknowledges Assurant’s diverse product and distribution platform, established presence in various niche markets, adequate risk-adjusted capitalization, solid operating earnings, adequate interest coverage ratio of over 10.0X and sufficient financial flexibility. Negatives include an ongoing U.S. ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 20, 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: Aetna Inc. (AET), UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH), WellPoint Inc. (WLP), Assurant Inc. (AIZ) and Cigna Corp. (CI).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Aetna Axes Jobs

In a bid to become more efficient, the health insurer Aetna Inc. (AET) announced on Wednesday its intention to shed a total of 1,250 jobs or about 3.5% of its total workforce by the first quarter of 2010. Management intends to do so

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In a bid to become more efficient, the health insurer Aetna Inc. (AET) announced on Wednesday its intention to shed a total of 1,250 jobs or about 3.5% of its total workforce by the first quarter of 2010. Management intends to do so in two phases, by slashing 625 jobs now and the remaining early next year.  The company expects to record after-tax restructuring charges of $40 million in fourth quarter 2009. Last December, the company cut 1,000 jobs, which was 3% of its total workforce. The company plans to slash majority of the jobs at its headquarters in Connecticut .  Aetna with a total head count of 35,500 is eliminating jobs to cope with the difficult economic environment and potential impact that the health care reform might cast on its health insurance business. Elimination of excess workforce will help streamline the business by optimizing staffing ...

Today we are featuring top-performing "Flexible" balanced mutual funds, which can invest in stocks, bonds, or cash to any degree in search of income or total return.

Investors can find such funds by checking out the entire list of the Zacks #1 Rank Flexible Balanced Funds.

3 Great Picks

Principal SAM Flexible Income A (SAUPX) seeks to provide a high level of total return (consisting of reinvestment of income with some capital appreciation).

The fund operates as a fund of funds and invests principally in underlying funds. It may invest up to 40% of assets in any single fixed-income fund as well as cash equivalents.

Michael D. Meighan has managed the fund since March 2003. The fund has topped total returns of its benchmark index in the last 1-, 3-and 5-year periods.

First American Strategy Conservative Allocation A (FSFIX) was incepted September 2001. The investment seeks

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The following is a list of the S&P 500 firms where the analysts have been cutting their expectations for the current fiscal year the most over the last month. Most likely these firms reported disappointing earnings or gave negative guidance on their conference calls.

Historically, you have not wanted to be invested in companies where the analysts who follow them most closely see the earnings prospects diminishing. Also, estimates in motion tend to remain in motion. The first bit of bad news is rarely the last (the cockroach theory). This means that the current expectations, even though down from last month, are probably still to high for these firms.

To weed out anomalies, only those firms that are currently expected to earn more than $0.50 in 2009 are included and only those firms where there are a minimum of three estimates in the system.

If you have these stocks in your portfolio,

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Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #5 Rank ("strong sell") List today:

ABB Ltd (ABB) American Ecology Corp (ECOL) American Oil & Gas Inc (AEZ) AmericanWest Bancorp (AWBC) Assurant Inc (AIZ) Blyth Inc (BTH) China Sunergy Co Ltd (CSUN) CoBiz Financial Inc (COBZ) Coleman Cable Inc (CCIX) Collective Brands Inc (PSS) Courier Corp (CRRC) Covance Inc (CVD) Cumulus Media Inc (CMLS) Doral Financial Corp (DRL) Echostar Corp (SATS) Electronics For Imaging Inc (EFII) Genesco Inc (GCO) The Greenbrier Companies (GBX) Heritage Financial Corp (HFWA) Heritage-Crystal Clean Inc (HCCI) Itron Inc (ITRI) LDK Solar Co Ltd (LDK) Liberty Property Trust (LRY) Macquarie Infrastructure Company LLC (MIC) Massey Energy Co (MEE) MDU Resources Group Inc (MDU) Mercantile Bank Corp (MBWM) Nash-Finch Co ...

Investors occasionally use a stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends,' which is the technique of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets.br /br /If you are interested in a href="http://stockerblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/buying-dividends-top-7-stocks-going-ex.html"buying dividends/a, there are many stocks in many different industries to choose from. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. br /br /PACCAR Inc (PCAR) Ex-div date: 2/17/09 P/E ratio: 8 PEG Ratio: 0.69 Yield: 2.70% br /Moody's Corporation (MCO) Ex-div date: 2/18/09 P/E ratio: 11 PEG Ratio: 0.74 Yield: 1.90% br /Target Corporation (TGT) Ex-div date: 2/18/09 P/E ...

Assurant Inc.'s (AIZ) core 2Q08 results were a nickel below our expectation. Based on diversified product and distribution platform and technology focus, AIZ has delivered solid operating earnings over the last five years.

However, continued dependence on third-party reinsurance and significant growth in specialty property exposes the group's earnings to a greater degree of variability over the near term. Therefore, we elect to keep our rating of the shares of this company as a Hold.

Following our review of AIZ's 2Q08 results we are decreasing our FY08 earnings expectation to $6.50 per share from $6.55 per share and our FY09 earnings expectation to $6.85 per share from $6.90 per share previously. The shares of Assurant currently trade at a multiple of 1.57x book value, excluding AOCI, of $36.68 per share for 2Q08 and 1.62x the $35.53 book value per share.

Based on general earnings trends, negligible catastrophe losses, we think the

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