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Zacks Releases Four Powerful ”Buy” Stocks: DeVry Inc., Tupperware Brands Corporation, MicroStrategy Inc. and Jinpan International Limited – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:30:30 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 25, 2009 – Four free stock picks are being made available today on Zacks.com. The industry’s leading independent research firm highlights one Zacks #1 Rank Strong Buy or a Zacks #2 Rank Buy stock for each of the four main styles of investing: Aggressive Growth, Growth & Income, Momentum, and Value.

The four highlighted picks are: DeVry Inc. (DV), Tupperware Brands Corporation (TUP), MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR) and Jinpan International Limited (JST).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Four daily picks are offered free at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

Zacks #1 Rank Stocks have nearly tripled the S&P 500 since 1988, producing an average annual return of +26%. Performance has been notable even during volatile and down times. For example, during the last bear market, 2000-2002, the market tumbled -37.6% – but Zacks #1 Rank stocks gained +43.8%.

Here is a summary of today's selected stocks that are now highly rated by Zacks:

Aggressive Growth – DeVry Inc. (DV)
DeVry Inc. continues to top estimates and the Zacks Consensus Estimate is on the rise.

Zacks Guide to Aggressive Growth Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4309

Growth & Income – Tupperware Brands Corporation (TUP)
Tupperware Brands Corporation stacks up well against the market, outpacing the S&P 500 by more than 150% over the past year. The company also continues to see a bullish Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Zacks Guide to Growth & Income Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4310

Momentum – MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR)
MicroStrategy Inc. recently jumped higher after the company reported better than expected Q3 earnings. Estimates are also on the rise, with the next-year estimate projecting 13% earnings growth.

Zacks Guide to Momentum Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4311

Value – Jinpan International Limited (JST)
Jinpan International Limited is taking advantage of worldwide interest in wind energy as international sales rose 40% in the third quarter. The company is trading with a forward P/E of 11.67.

Zacks Guide to Value Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4312

How to Regularly Access Picks from the Zacks Rank Discovery for Free: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

Underlying the four free stock picks is a simple truth that first appeared in a Financial Analysts Journal article published in 1979. Leonard Zacks, a Ph.D. in Mathematics from M.I.T. found that "earnings estimate revisions are the most powerful force impacting stock prices." Zacks #1 Rank is awarded to a stock when analysts sharply upgrade their estimates of what the company will earn.

Today, Zacks is promoting its stock recommendations by offering four daily picks free to those who register at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

About Zacks

Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978 by Len Zacks. The company continually processes stock reports issued by 3,000 analysts from 150 brokerage firms. It monitors more than 200,000 earnings estimates, looking for changes.

Then, when changes are discovered, they’re applied to help assign more than 4,400 stocks into five Zacks Rank categories: #1 Strong Buy, #2 Buy, #3 Hold, #4 Sell, and #5 Strong Sell. This proprietary stock-picking system continues to outperform the market by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.

More Free Stock Picks

Each weekday, new Zacks #1 Rank or Zacks #2 Rank stock picks are released on the free email newsletter, Profit from the Pros. Investors are invited to register for their free subscription at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5642

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts

Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates.

Disclaimer: Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should always research companies and securities before making any investments. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security.

Zacks.com

Aggressive Growth Stocks:
Contact: Bill Wilton
Phone: 312-265-9277

Growth & Income Stocks:
Contact: Alex Kolb
Phone: 312-265-9149

Momentum Stocks:
Contact: Michael Vodicka
Phone: 312-265-9226

Value Stocks:
Contact: Tracey Ryniec
Phone: 312-265-9232

Email: pr@zacks.com
Visit: www.zacks.com

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc., Energy Transfer Partners, Ford, Whirlpool and Wal-Mart – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:31:53 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 25, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (WFR) as the Bull of the Day and Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Ford (F), Whirlpool (WHR) and Wal-Mart (WMT).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (WFR) produces the raw material wafers used by semiconductor manufacturers in the production of integrated circuits (ICs).

The decision to supply wafers to the solar industry paid huge rewards in 2007 and 2008, as demand for polysilicon raced ahead of supply. The Solar business and the 300mm business are both high-margin products. The spot price of polysilicon has been slashed from a peak of $400 per/kg to the $60-$70 per/kg range.

The stock is significantly undervalued. We are reiterating our Buy rating on the shares of WFR.

Bear of the Day:

Our Underperform recommendation on Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) units takes into account the bearish outlook for pipeline operators. While the partnership's liquidity position is sound, we continue to believe that the near- to medium-term outlook for its natural gas gathering and processing business remains weak.

Weighed down by these factors, Energy Transfer posted a third-quarter 2009 loss. The partnership's low growth and seasonal propane business also remain a major liability, in our view.

Given these headwinds, we expect Energy Transfer units to be under pressure in the medium- to long-term. The partnership's discounted valuation relative to the pipeline MLP group reflects its heightened risk profile.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Consumer Confidence Increasing

The 5,000 households’ (that the Conference Board surveyed) assessment of the present situation fell ever-so-slightly to 21.0 from 21.1. That is a very bad reading, not too far from the record low set in February 1983 of 17.5%. Overall, 45.7% of consumers saw the current business conditions as bad, down from 46.7% in October, while 8.1% saw business conditions as good, up from 7.8% last month. Their view of the labor market continued to deteriorate, with 49.8 seeing jobs as hard to get, up from 49.4% last month. The percentage (of deluded people) who saw jobs as plentiful dropped to 3.2% from 3.5% in October.

While the better-than-expected consumer confidence reading for this month -- and the upward consumer confidence revision to last month -- are encouraging, the details of the report are not all that robust. In theory, higher consumer confidence should lead consumers to open up their wallets, something that is very important as the holidays approach. If consumers have confidence about the economy, they are more likely to buy big ticket items like cars from Ford (F) or major appliances from Whirlpool (WHR). Perhaps they might buy more impulse items at the checkout counter at Wal-Mart (WMT).

Historically though, the consumer confidence numbers, like the University of Michigan sentiment numbers, do not have a great track record of predicting how consumers will behave. So count this consumer confidence report as a minor positive. Changes in consumer spending generally have much more to do with changes in personal income than with this sort of survey data, and that data is due out tomorrow.

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.

About the Analyst Blog

Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Continuous analyst coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today by visiting http://at.zacks.com/?id=5508.

About Zacks

Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978 by Leonard Zacks. As a PhD in mathematics Len knew he could find patterns in stock market data that would lead to superior investment results. Amongst his many accomplishments was the formation of his proprietary stock picking system; the Zacks Rank, which continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3 to 1 margin. The best way to unlock the profitable stock recommendations and market insights of Zacks Investment Research is through our free daily email newsletter; Profit from the Pros. In short, it's your steady flow of Profitable ideas GUARANTEED to be worth your time! Register for your free subscription to Profit from the Pros at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5509.

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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Contact:
Mark Vickery
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312-265-9380
Visit: www.zacks.com

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Salesforce.com, CA Inc., BMC Software, Microsoft and Oracle – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:16:38 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 25, 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: Salesforce.com (CRM), CA Inc. (CA), BMC Software (BMC), Microsoft (MSFT) and Oracle (ORCL).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Salesforce Partners with CA & BMC

Salesforce.com (CRM) entered into a number of strategic alliances that are expected to enhance the cloud computing service and solutions offered by it.

The first among these strategic alliances is with enterprise IT management company CA Inc. (CA). This partnership is expected to deliver agile development management in the cloud on the Force.com platform.

The CA Agile Planner on the Force.com site is targeted at small businesses and enterprises alike. The service is intended to accelerate development timelines while gaining control and visibility over all of the development initiatives. This innovative product will result in reduced time to market.

The second in the list is the agreement with BMC Software (BMC). This strategic alliance is expected to deliver BMC’s industry-leading IT management solutions on the Force.com platform. The joint offering is expected to address the overwhelming customer demand for critical service desk function and processes that are delivered through the cloud computing platform.

This new product is intended to help customers simplify and automate their IT process and at the same time fetch a quick return on their investment. These new collaborations are expected to help the company strengthen its position in the cloud computing market and attract additional customers by providing enhanced solutions.

Salesforce reported better than expected third quarter results, exceeding the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. The company reported revenue of $330.5 million, an increase of 20.0% from the year-ago quarter and and over the guided range of $323-324 million. These encouraging numbers are illustrative of the fact that the company is constantly creating value for itself and its shareholders. We expect Saleforce to continue with the same trend going forward.

Although the company is growing exponentially in the cloud computing segment, Salesforce is expected to face stiff competition from big companies such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Oracle (ORCL).

Want more from Zacks Equity Research? Subscribe to the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5515.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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Contact:
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Web Content Editor
312-265-9380
Visit: www.zacks.com

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Citigroup Inc., Intuit Inc., ENI S.p.A, BP plc and Royal Dutch Shell – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:10:28 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 25, 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: Citigroup Inc. (C), Intuit Inc. (INTU), ENI S.p.A (E), BP plc (BP) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Citi Expects Strong Economic Growth

Citigroup Inc. (C) forecasts strong economic growth in many countries in 2010. But although the company expects several countries to experience economic growth, it predicts that the growth will be somewhat uneven.

According to the annual report of Citi’s Investment Research and Analysis group, though growth will be strong and even across major economies in the beginning of the year, it will be uneven later. Citi expects Asia, excluding Japan, to experience sustained economic growth. Though the U.S. is expected to see fairly strong economic growth, the recovery will be more gradual in Europe and Japan.

Citi also upgraded its 2010 gross domestic product forecasts for the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Korea, Argentina, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Turkey.

The report also suggested that Central Banks are unlikely to hike key interest rates through the next year. However, credit availability is expected to remain restricted at least for a year or two as banks seek to raise additional capital under regulatory pressure. Also, inflation on a global basis appears to be controlled. Additionally, countries will need to achieve fiscal sustainability to post strong economic growth.

Disappointing Forecast at Intuit

Intuit Inc. (INTU) recently reported results for the first quarter. Revenues increased 2% to $493 million, driven by growth in core businesses.

Revenues from Financial Institutions segment increased 7% while Employee Management Solutions Payroll service increased 9%.

Loss per share came in at 10 cents, much better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 22 cents per share, mainly due to cost control activities undertaken by the management. The company had postponed some of its marketing costs for the quarter.

During the quarter, the company repurchased $300 million worth of stock in the quarter, and the board has now approved a new repurchase program of $600 million. Intuit ended the quarter with more than $1 billion in cash and investments.

Going forward, management expects revenues between $3.3 billion and $3.43 billion in fiscal 2010, up 4% – 8%. Earnings per share are projected between 29 cents and 32 cents. Revenues for the second quarter are projected between $800 million and $835 million, up 1% – 6%. Earnings per share are expected to come between 15 cents and 18 cents.

The forecast was much lower than the street estimates, leading to a 2% fall in share price after the results were announced. On the conference call, management stated that the company is yet to find a significant improvement in business sentiment among small business customers who use the company’s flagship products such as QuickBooks software and Turbo Tax programs.

ENI Buys Uganda Blocks

ENI S.p.A (E) entered into a definitive agreement with Heritage Oil to buy the latter’s 50% interest in blocks 1 and 3A in Uganda . Total consideration for the contract is $1.35 billion. The contract also provides an additional consideration of $150 million, either in cash or in kind, on fulfillment of certain conditions in the future.

The company was pursuing an approach of sustainable development through its expertise and technologies in the African continent. And this transaction is part of this development strategy.

Located in the Lake Albert basin, blocks 1 and 3A have resources of more than 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Of this, nearly 70% has already been discovered with approximately 28 wells drilled in the area. The agreement is subject to approval by the competent authorities.

Eni has been producing in the African continent for a long time. The company is currently acting as an operator in many oil-producing countries such as Angola, Ghana, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Mozambique. Total production per day from these regions currently amounts to about 450,000 barrels of oil equivalent.

Eni’s upstream portfolio spreads over a number of fields in several countries. Its lower reliance on a handful of large fields, both in its existing portfolio and its future growth pipeline, is in contrast to the growth profile of BP plc (BP) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), both of which are heavily dependent on the delivery of a few key projects.

In addition, Eni’s lack of exposure in the refining and marketing space is also a significant positive in the current compressed margin environment, in our view. We, however, believe that all these positives are already reflected in its valuation. As such, we recommend a Neutral rating for the stock.

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About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts

Contact:
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312-265-9380
Visit: www.zacks.com

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Affiliated Computer Services Inc., Xerox Corp., Expedia Inc., Orbitz Worldwide and Priceline.com – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:00:53 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 25, 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: Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS), Xerox Corp. (XRX), Expedia Inc. (EXPE), Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) and Priceline.com (PCLN).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Settlement in Xerox-ACS Merger

Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) announced that the complaint filed by ACS shareholders regarding its merger with Xerox Corp. (XRX) has been resolved. The plaintiffs have temporarily withdrawn their motion for an injunction to block the deal.

The lawsuit was filed in October in Dallas County, Texas as Xerox was struggling to convince its shareholders to approve the deal.

The plaintiffs agreed to drop the lawsuit only if ACS’s Board of Directors received a better proposal than Xerox’s current bid and Xerox did not force ACS’s Chairman Darwin Deason to exercise his voting power in favor of the Xerox acquisition. The previous agreement called for Mr. Deason to cast half his votes in favor of the Xerox bid. He controls 44% of the votes at ACS.

Xerox has also decided not to force ACS to hold a shareholder meeting to vote on the Xerox transaction, and if requested by the Xerox’s shareholders ACS will terminate the Merger Agreement. Xerox also said that a pension fund has dropped a lawsuit over the purchase of ACS. However, a separate shareholder class action lawsuit is still pending in Delaware.

In September, Xerox agreed to acquire Affiliated in a cash and stock transaction valued at $6.4 billion ($63.11 per ACS share in cash and Xerox stock). Affiliated shareholders will receive $18.60 in cash and 4.935 shares of Xerox for each ACS share. Xerox will also assume $2 billion of ACS’s debt and issue $300 million of convertible preferred stock to ACS shareholders.

Downgrading Expedia to Neutral

We are downgrading shares of Expedia Inc. (EXPE) from Outperform to Neutral.

The company reported strong results in the last quarter, but continued to benefit from promotional inventories provided by its hotel partners. When results are stripped off the benefits of promotional activities, a softer demand environment could become evident.

We also do not expect the company to report better than seasonal sales growth in the current quarter.

The company has sacrificed booking fees this year, which is telling on the average daily rates (ADRs). Therefore, ADRs could be the metric to watch rather than room nights at this point of time.

We are also concerned about the incidence of transient occupancy taxes. Although municipalities and governments have decided that they will recover occupancy taxes from hotels if they lose out to online travel companies, we note that Expedia has already lost in Georgia and the company is slated to pay out $55 million to the City of San Francisco.

A fresh suit has now been filed by Florida, and for the first time the company has been charged under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Five Florida counties have decided to charge Expedia, as well as other online travel companies such as Orbitz Worldwide (OWW), Priceline.com (PCLN) and Travelocity for recovery of transient occupancy taxes. The company made a hefty provision in the June quarter, but we fear that this could be insufficient if the cases continue. Fines of this magnitude have the potential to develop into a constant drain on cash.

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About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts

Contact:
Mark Vickery
Web Content Editor
312-265-9380
Visit: www.zacks.com

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Bank of America, MGIC, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Hewlett-Packard – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:53:57 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 25, 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: Bank of America (BAC), MGIC (MTG), Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Home Prices Continue to Rise

It is encouraging to see home prices rise. If this continues, some of the people in underwater houses (meaning with a mortgage more than the value of the house) might just see the flood recede and regain some positive equity in the house. This would greatly reduce the number of foreclosures in the future. It would make it an economically rational thing for people to pay their mortgages again. As it stands today in big areas of the country, it isn’t.

As a result, mortgage delinquencies have been skyrocketing, and eventually those delinquencies will lead to foreclosures. That could reignite a vicious circle, where the foreclosed houses flood the market, once again depressing prices, which causes more people to think there are better places to put their money than paying their mortgages.

Rising home prices have the potential to turn that into a virtuous cycle. To the extent that happens, it has very positive implications for the entire mortgage complex, from the big banks like Bank of America (BAC) to the mortgage insurance firms like MGIC (MTG) to the wards of the state, Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE).

However, I fear that the increase in home prices is only temporary. That it is the product of extraordinary government efforts to prop up home prices, and that those efforts can not be sustained forever. These include the tax credit (recently expanded to include move up buyers), which is scheduled to end at the end of April, and the Fed’s program of buying up $1.25 Trillion in mortgage-backed paper to manipulate mortgage rates lower. They should finish up their purchases by the end of March.

HP Revenue Down, EPS In-Line

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) reported fourth quarter EPS of $1.14, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny.

Revenue for the quarter came in at $30.8 billion, a decrease of 8.0% from the $33.6 billion reported in the year-ago period and down 5.0% on constant currency basis.

Revenue fell across all businesses, including servers and data storage systems, software, PCs and printers. The Americas reported a 3.0% decline in revenue to $13.6 billion. Revenue declined 17.0% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to $11.7 billion and 1.0% in the Asia Pacific to $5.4 billion. Revenue from China increased more than 20% from the year-ago quarter.

International markets accounted for 64% of total revenue in the fourth quarter, with revenue in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) declining 4.0% on a year-over-year basis and accounting for 10.0% of total HP revenue.

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About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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Contact:
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312-265-9380
Visit: www.zacks.com

Zacks Investment Research

Home Prices Continue to Rise – Analyst Blog

Dirk Van Dijk — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:44:14 +0000

This morning the S&P Case-Schiller index was released. The Composite 20 index (C-20), which covers 20 of the largest metropolitan areas in the country rose by 0.27% on a seasonally adjusted basis (home prices are seasonal, so the adjusted data is what you should be looking at -- most of the press makes a mistake by focusing on the unadjusted data, thus these figures might vary from what you read elsewhere). That was the fourth straight increase. The Composite 10 (C-10) index, which is a subset of the Composite 20, but which has a longer history, posted a 0.36% increase for the month.

On a year over year basis, the C-20 is down by 9.39% while the C-10 is down 8.53%. While it was an increase, it was a smaller one than was expected. The consensus of economists was looking for a C-20 year-over-year decline of just 9.10%. The data is for September, not October like most of the data that has come out recently.

The country was roughly split between areas where home prices increased during the month and areas where housing values continue to decline. Eleven metropolitan areas posted increases and nine suffered declines. Some of the areas with the biggest increases in home prices were a bit of a surprise.

In California, San Francisco saw the largest monthly increase of any city, enjoying a 1.71% rise. It was one of the areas that was considered "bubble central," but has started to stage a comeback. Over the last year, prices in the City by the Bay are down 7.85%. Similarly, San Diego posted a 1.05% increase for the month, and it is now down just 5.72% year over year. Long-depressed Detroit saw prices increase by 1.25% for the month, although on a year-over-year basis, home prices are still down by 19.26%. The other areas that saw monthly increases of over 1.0% were the Twin Cities, up 1.31%, and Chicago, up 1.11%.

On the negative side, the worst-hit city was Cleveland, which was down 1.20% for the month, although it is actually among the healthiest cities on a year-over-year basis with home prices down just 3.880%. Then again, the housing bubble was not centered on the beaches of Lake Erie, it was centered on the beaches of Southern California and Florida.

Las Vegas, which is the city that has been hit the hardest by falling home prices overall, continued to see prices fall, down another 1.19% for the month, and off 28.63% from a year ago. From the peak, home prices are down 55.4%. The only other city that comes close, to that cumulative decline is Phoenix, down 52.0%.

Also keep in mind that the home price declines had lasted for far more than just a year. The graph below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows the cumulative decline from the peak pricing, which was hit in April of 2006 for both of the composite indexes, but is shown in the graph from each individual city peak. It breaks down the cumulative decline by time period, with the blue bar showing how much home prices fell through the end of 2007, yellow showing where things stood at the end of 2008, and blue indicating how far the city is now off its peak. Thus if the orange bar is shorter than the yellow bar, it means that city has actually seen home prices rise so far this year.

It is encouraging to see home prices rise. If this continues, some of the people in underwater houses (meaning with a mortgage more than the value of the house) might just see the flood recede and regain some positive equity in the house. This would greatly reduce the number of foreclosures in the future. It would make it an economically rational thing for people to pay their mortgages again. As it stands today in big areas of the country, it isn’t.

As a result, mortgage delinquencies have been skyrocketing, and eventually those delinquencies will lead to foreclosures. That could reignite a vicious circle, where the foreclosed houses flood the market, once again depressing prices, which causes more people to think there are better places to put their money than paying their mortgages.

Rising home prices have the potential to turn that into a virtuous cycle. To the extent that happens, it has very positive implications for the entire mortgage complex, from the big banks like Bank of America (BAC) to the mortgage insurance firms like MGIC (MTG) to the wards of the state, Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE).

However, I fear that the increase in home prices is only temporary. That it is the product of extraordinary government efforts to prop up home prices, and that those efforts can not be sustained forever. These include the tax credit (recently expanded to include move up buyers), which is scheduled to end at the end of April, and the Fed’s program of buying up $1.25 Trillion in mortgage-backed paper to manipulate mortgage rates lower. They should finish up their purchases by the end of March.

The FHA has also played a huge role in propping up the market, making far more loans than it ever has before, and only requiring down-payments of 3.5%. People can even use the tax credit for their down-payment. The FHA’s reserves are already dangerously low, and the delinquencies on the loans they insure are skyrocketing, particularly for mortgages it issued in 2007 and 2008. This year’s loans have not really had time to go bad yet. The FHA may end up going the way of Fannie and Freddie and require a massive federal bailout.

All in all, the increase in home prices is good news, but it is coming with a big price from the Federal Treasury and may end up being ephemeral. The risk of a renewed downturn in the second quarter of 2010 is very big. If that were to occur, it would mean more pain for the mortgage complex.

Dirk van Dijk, CFA is the Chief Equity Strategist for Zacks.com. With more than 25 years investment experience he has become a popular commentator appearing in the Wall Street Journal and on CNBC. Dirk is also the Editor in charge of the market-beating Zacks Strategic Investor service.
Read the full analyst report on "BAC"
Read the full analyst report on "MTG"
Read the full analyst report on "FNM"
Read the full analyst report on "FRE"
Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Releases Four Powerful ”Buy” Stocks: Encore Capital Group, Inc., American Express Company, Arena Resources Inc. and Avnet, Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:56:42 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 24, 2009 – Four free stock picks are being made available today on Zacks.com. The industry’s leading independent research firm highlights one Zacks #1 Rank Strong Buy or a Zacks #2 Rank Buy stock for each of the four main styles of investing: Aggressive Growth, Growth & Income, Momentum, and Value.

The four highlighted picks are: Encore Capital Group, Inc. (ECPG), American Express Company (AXP), Arena Resources Inc. (ARD) and Avnet, Inc. (AVT).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Four daily picks are offered free at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

Here is a summary of today's selected stocks that are now highly rated by Zacks:

Aggressive Growth – Encore Capital Group, Inc. (ECPG)
Encore Capital Group, Inc. just set a new 52-week high following the recent earnings report, which topped expectations.

Zacks Guide to Aggressive Growth Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4309

Growth & Income – American Express Company (AXP)
American Express Company has seen recent upward revisions of the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings. Shares staged a nice advance lately, outpacing the market by about 20% over the past 3 months.

Zacks Guide to Growth & Income Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4310

Momentum – Arena Resources Inc. (ARD)
Arena Resources Inc. has posted big gains over the last 8 months on strong earnings and elevated energy prices.

Zacks Guide to Momentum Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4311

Value – Avnet, Inc. (AVT)
Avnet, Inc. recently saw quarter over quarter growth as the global recession eased. The company is trading with a forward P/E of 13.2.

Zacks Guide to Value Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4312

Today, Zacks is promoting its stock recommendations by offering four daily picks free to those who register at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

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Aggressive Growth Stocks:
Contact: Bill Wilton
Phone: 312-265-9277

Growth & Income Stocks:
Contact: Alex Kolb
Phone: 312-265-9149

Momentum Stocks:
Contact: Michael Vodicka
Phone: 312-265-9226

Value Stocks:
Contact: Tracey Ryniec
Phone: 312-265-9232

Email: pr@zacks.com
Visit: www.zacks.com

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Earnings Trends Highlights: Applied Materials, KLA-Tencor, Novellus, Ford and Cummins Engine – Press Releases

Dirk Van Dijk — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:50:45 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 24, 2009 - Zacks Research Equity Strategist Dirk Van Dijk says that S&P 500 earnings are continuing to show red ink. He tracks companies on the Zacks.com web site, naming names, while forecasting trends for the months ahead.

Be Thankful for a Strong Earnings Season

The broad increases in earnings estimates seems to reflect a much better short-term outlook for the economy. Note that some of the most cyclical areas such as Retailers, Materials and Autos are seeing a large preponderance of upward over downward earnings revisions, and that most of the firms in those sectors are seeing their consensus estimates increase.

On the other hand, the defensive Staples sector has a very high revisions ratio of 8.55, so it’s not just the cyclicals. Then again, given the great performance by the Staples on the surprise front, a strong estimate revisions performance is not surprising.

One industry that has seen some remarkable increases in their estimates for both this year and next is the Semiconductor Equipment industry, with firms like Applied Materials (AMAT), KLA-Tencor (KLAC) and Novellus (NVLS) all seeing no estimates cut and double-digit numbers of increases leading to very large percentage gains in their mean estimates. Those are what one might term new economy cyclicals. Many of the old economy cyclicals like Ford (F) and Cummins Engine (CMI) have also seen large estimate increases.

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Petrobras, St. Jude Medical, Motorola Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Alcatel-Lucent – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:39:50 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 24, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Petrobras (PBR) as the Bull of the Day and St. Jude Medical (STJ) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Motorola Inc.(MOT), Sprint Nextel Corp.(S) and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Petrobras (PBR), the largest integrated energy firm in Brazil, stands to benefit from its country's economic growth and huge pre-salt oil reserves. The company recently reported a better-than-expected third-quarter, helped by strong downstream results that more than offset the sharp decline in commodity prices.

Near- to medium-term concerns include the uncertain commodity-price scenario, significant capital investment requirements, and Brazil's proposed new oil and gas regulatory framework. However, given its strong pipeline of development projects and impressive recent exploration successes, the company's long-term outlook looks compelling.

As such, we recommend an Outperform rating for Petrobras ADRs. Our six-month target price is $55 per share.

Bear of the Day:

We look for global demographic trends -- aging populations in developed nations and the rapid urbanization of developing countries -- to fuel long-term growth of St. Jude Medical (STJ). These trends give rise to growing demand for cardiovascular health care.

However, recent weaknesses in the CRM segment, particularly in the U.S., are headwinds for St. Jude in the near-term. This might force the company to lose market share to its competitors.

Earnings per share in the third quarter reached $0.59, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by one cent. However, we have chosen to downgrade the stock to an Underperform with a target price of $31.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Motorola Boosts iDEN Business

Motorola Inc.(MOT) has decided to purchase iDEN base station assets of the privately held RadioFrame Networks Inc. The iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) technology allows cell phone calls to move on the same network as communication from two-way radios. In general, this technology resembles walkie-talkie features on cell phones. Financial terms of this deal have not been disclosed so far. Motorola itself is the pioneer of the iDEN technology that RadioFrame had licensed for its base station products.

The main reason for this acquisition is the superior iDEN-based base station products of RadioFrame that are lower cost and more power efficient. This proposed acquisition will enhance Motorola's portfolio of multi-channel base stations products that are optimized to support non-contiguous spectrum allocations in the special mobile radio business. Motorola may use RadioFrame’s lower-cost iDEN architecture into entirely separated spectrum bands that are allocated to the wireless carriers in the international (outside the U.S.) markets. RadioFrame has a solid client base for its base station products, notable among them being Sprint Nextel Corp.(S).

RadioFrame’s base station products will be a part of Motorola’s Home and Network Mobility segment. This segment makes equipment for cable and wireless operators. Recently, industry rumors indicated that the company has decided to sell this segment for more than $4.5 billion. As of now, Home and Network Mobility is the largest segment of Motorola. In the third quarter of 2009, this segment generated more than $2 billion revenue and $199 million operating profit.

Earlier this month, Motorola’s Home and Network Mobility segment decided to purchase IPTV specialist BitBand and will do venture funding to the LTE chip making business of Sequans Communications together with Alcatel-Lucent (ALU). BitBand has more than 60 commercial IPTV deployments throughout the world and Paris based Sequans Communications has intended to demonstrate its first LTE chipset in early 2010. Whether Motorola sells its Home and Network Mobility segment or not, it seems that the company is increasingly focusing on optimizing the resources of its largest business segment.

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.

About the Analyst Blog

Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Skyworks Solutions, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia and Siemens – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:27:38 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 24, 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: Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), Ericsson (ERIC), Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), Nokia (NOK) and Siemens (SI).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Skyworks Beats Estimates

Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) earlier reported revenues of $228.1 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, up 19% sequentially and surpassed management’s guidance range of $220 million - $225 million.

Operating margin came in at 14.4% compared to 12.0% in the previous quarter. Earnings per share came in at 24 cents, easily beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 18 cents.

During the quarter, the company retired $17.4 million in 2010 convertible bonds, which led to a dilution of the equity base by two million.

Going forward, although the management remains cautious about the broader economy, it expects revenues to grow by 15% - 20% year over year driven by mobile Internet, energy management and diversified analog applications. Management indicated improved order visibility and strength in backlog at the end of the quarter. This implies a revenue guidance of $238 million - $242 million. Operating margin is forecasted around 20%. Earnings per share are expected around 25 cents.

The company launched network infrastructure digital attenuators, voltage controller oscillators, synthesizers and mixers at Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson (ERIC), Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) and Nokia-Siemens (NOK)/(SI).

Skyworks is well positioned to benefit from recent trends in the handset market, which are favorable to increasing dollar content for RF components. In general, the increasing complexity of higher-end phones that offer multi-band communication across various air standards are expanding the market for Skyworks’ products due to the need for backward compatibility from 3G to 2G networks. There is a significant growth opportunity in the handsets market, propelled by the launch of 3G in China.

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Las Vegas Sands, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Barclays PLC and UBS AG – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:16:19 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 24, 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: Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS), Barclays PLC (BCS) and UBS AG (UBS).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Sands China Raises $2.5B in IPO

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Macau unit, Sand China raised $2.5 billion through its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO). The company has priced the IPO for 1.87 billion shares at HK$10.38 per share, the low end of the expected HK$10.38-HK$13.88 range.

The proceeds from this offering, combined with $1.75 billion in bank financing, would aid Sands China to restart its Macau's Cotai Strip construction projects. Last year, the company was forced to halt its casino expansion projects in Macau due to financial constraints, at which time it laid off 11,000 workers.

The IPO is being handled by five investment banks. Citigroup (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS) are the joint global coordinators for the offer while Barclays PLC (BCS), BNP Paribas SA and UBS AG (UBS) are the underwriters.

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About Zacks Equity Research

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Halliburton Company, Schlumberger Limited, Smith International Inc., National-Oilwell Varco and Weatherford International Ltd. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:10:56 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 24, 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: Halliburton Company (HAL), Schlumberger Limited (SLB), Smith International Inc. (SII), National-Oilwell Varco (NOV) and Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

U.S. Rig Count Hits 8-Month High

Producers had scaled back oil and gas drilling operations over the past several months in the midst of falling commodity prices and tighter access to credit. However, during recent weeks, there have been signs that the companies were beginning to bring rigs back on line (especially oil rigs) amid signs of economic stabilization that could drive up energy demand. This pushed the nationwide rig count above 1,100 working units for the week ended Nov. 13, the first time since March.

The overall picture, though, remains weak, particularly for natural gas, whose inventories have recently hit a new record high of 3.83 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) and is threatening to test the maximum capacity of 3.89 Tcf. The supply picture is expected to reverse in the coming months as producers bet on colder weather and the lagging effect of the sharp drop in domestic drilling activity takes hold.

Until then, we believe that natural gas woes (especially in North America) will continue to haunt energy service firms like Halliburton Company (HAL), Schlumberger Limited (SLB), Smith International Inc. (SII), National-Oilwell Varco (NOV) and Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT). These oilfield service names have seen their revenues and earnings plunge in the last few quarters on the back of lower volumes and a very competitive pricing environment. We have Neutral recommendations on all the above-mentioned companies.

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Sherwin Williams, La-Z-Boy and Campbell Soup Co. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:00:30 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 24, 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: Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), Sherwin Williams (SHW), La-Z-Boy (LZB) and Campbell Soup Co. (CPB).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Existing Home Sales Soar Again

Lower mortgages rates -- greatly suppressed by the Fed’s policy of buying up $1.25 Trillion of mortgages backed by Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) but that buying spree is expected to end at the end of the first quarter -- have also helped the existing homes sales market. In October, 30-year fixed rate mortgages fell to an average of 4.95%, down 2.17% from 5.06% in September and down 20.16% from the year-ago level of 6.20%.

A third and very important reason for the rebound in existing home sales is that prices have come down. Overall, median existing home prices are now $173,100, a 7.1% decline from a year ago. Existing single-family home prices have held up a little bit better, down 6.8% from a year ago, while prices for Condos are down 10.4% from last year.

Regionally, existing home sales were up by double digits for the month in every region but the West. The Midwest led the way with sales up 14.4% to an annual rate of 1.43 million. From last year, sales in the region are up 28.8%.

In the very important South region, sales rose by 12.7% and are up 25.7% from a year ago. Sales in the South were at an annual rate of 2.30 million, or 37.7% of the total. While that is well below the over 50% rate that the region accounts for when it comes to new home sales, it still makes it the largest region of the country by a wide margin.

The Northeast is the smallest region, with sales at an annual rate of 1.06 million, but that rate was up 11.6% from September and is up 27.7% from a year ago. The rebound was much more muted out West, where sales were up just 1.6% for the month and just 12.0% year over year. The West has also suffered by far the largest decline in median prices, down 14.7% from a year ago -- more than double the next largest decline (the South -- 14.7%).

In the Northeast, which is the most expensive market (median price of $235,400) prices are down just 2.6% year over year. In the Midwest, the most inexpensive market (median price $146,600) prices are actually up 1.1% from a year ago.

While the news on existing home sales is good, and the existing home market is FAR larger than the new home market, it is also far less significant to the economy than is the new home market. New homes directly stimulate residential investment, which is an important (and volatile) component of GDP. Lots of labor and materials go into building a new home.

Existing home sales have only an indirect effect on the economy. They stimulate sales of things like paint from Sherwin Williams (SHW) and furniture from La-Z-Boy (LZB) as people redecorate, but such spending is much smaller than building a whole new house. In other words, this is good news, just don’t get too carried away about its significance.

Campbell’s Beats, Raises Guidance

Campbell Soup Co. (CPB) reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of 87 cents per share, which was above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 81 cents. Quarterly earnings were up 14.5% compared to the prior-year quarter.

Quarterly net sales declined 2.1% year over year due to a negative impact of 4% from volume and mix and 1% from increased promotional spending, partially offset by positive contributions of 2% from price and allowances and 1% from currency translation. Gross margin for the quarter expanded 170 basis points (bps) to 41.9% versus 40.2% in the year-ago quarter, reflecting productivity improvements and pricing benefits.

Sales of the US Soup, Sauces and Beverages segment decreased 5% year over year. US soup sales fell 3%, driven by sales declines in condensed, RTS and broth. Prego pasta sauce and Pace Mexican sales dropped due to competitive pressures, while beverage sales declined due to weak sales of V-8 vegetable juice.

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About Zacks Equity Research

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Earnings Preview: Deere, Tyson and BJ Services. – Press Releases

Dirk Van Dijk — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:42:23 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 23, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the list of companies likely to issue earnings surprises. This week’s list includes Deere (DE), Tyson (TSN) and BJ Services (BJS). To see more earnings analysis, visit http://at.zacks.com/?id=3207.

Every day, Zacks.com makes 4 stock picks available, free of charge. To see them, go to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5612.

Give Thanks for a Great 3Q

Historically the best indicators of firms which are likely to report positive surprises are a recent history of positive surprises and rising estimates going into the report. The Zacks Rank is also a good indicator of potential surprises. Some of the companies that have these characteristics include:

Deere (DE) is expected to post EPS of just $0.05, down from $0.81 last year. That low expectation sets it up for a positive surprise. Last time out they beat by 73.7%. However there has been no change in the estimate over the last month, and the stock has a neutral Zacks Rank of 3

Tyson (TSN), the poultry producer, might just make its investors thankful. It is expected to earn $0.26, up from $0.14 last year. Last time out it beat by 83.3%. However, analysts have slightly shaved the mean estimate by 0.6% over the last month.

In keeping with the overall very positive tone of this earnings season, the potential negative firms are less clear cut. However:

BJ Services (BJS) is expected to post EPS of just $0.03, down from $0.57 last year. It badly missed estimates last time, reporting a loss instead of income and analysts have cut the estimates for this year’s quarter by 11.1% over the last month.

Dirk Van Dijk, CFA, is the Chief Equity Strategist for Zacks.com.

About the Zacks Rank

Since 1988, the Zacks Rank has proven that "Earnings estimate revisions are the most powerful force impacting stock prices." Since inception in 1988, #1 Rank Stocks have generated an average annual return of +26%. During the 2000-2002 bear market, Zacks #1 Rank stocks gained +43.8%, while the S&P 500 tumbled -37.6%. Also note that the Zacks Rank system has just as many Strong Sell recommendations (Rank #5) as Strong Buy recommendations (Rank #1). Since 1988, Zacks Rank #5 stocks have underperformed the S&P 500 by 111% annually (-0.8% versus +8%). Thus, the Zacks Rank system allows investors to truly manage portfolio trading effectively.

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Contact: Dirk Van Dijk, CFA
Company: Zacks.com
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Email: pr@zacks.com
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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Caterpillar, Cost Plus, Inc., Gap Inc., J.M. Smucker Company and Stone Energy Corporation – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:32:24 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 23, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Caterpillar (CAT) as the Bull of the Day and Cost Plus, Inc. (CPWM) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Gap Inc.(GPS), J.M. Smucker Company (SJM) and Stone Energy Corporation (SGY).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Caterpillar (CAT) is a market leader in construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines. With its strong brand name, pricing power and global dealer network, we believe Caterpillar is well positioned to take advantage of the growing need for infrastructure development globally.

Though the company expects 2009 sales to decline more than 35% year-over-year, it anticipates an improvement in its top-line in 2010. The company forecasts a 10% to 25% increase in sales for 2010, compared to the midpoint of the 2009 outlook range.

Asserting its optimistic outlook, the company recently announced plans to increase its machinery prices by 2% effective January 2010. We are upgrading the stock to Outperform.

Bear of the Day:

Specialty retailer Cost Plus, Inc. (CPWM) is closing stores, cutting costs, and trying to preserve cash, but those moves will do little to reverse its weak sales trends and merchandise margins.

In addition, management's guidance for the third quarter cautioned investors to prepare for more weakness. Cost Plus expects same-store sales to decrease 6%-11% and a pre-tax loss from continuing operations of $19-$24 million.

Cost Plus is scheduled to report third quarter results on December 3. We have an Underperform rating on CPWM shares. Our six-month target price is $0.50.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Gap’s Earnings Improve

Gap Inc.(GPS), a premier international specialty retailer, has reported healthy third quarter results despite challenging market conditions. The company reported net income of $307 million or 44 cents per share during the quarter compared to $246 million or 35 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter.

The robust earnings were primarily driven by strong sales at its low-price Old Navy segment and the highest third quarter operating margins in a decade. Net sales during the quarter were $3.59 billion compared to $3.56 billion in the year-ago quarter, largely due to a 10% increase in comparable sales across 1,060 Old Navy stores that account for about 40% of the total sales.

The Old Navy chain has benefited from the increasing preference among U.S. shoppers for lower-price and discount stores due to the continued challenging macroeconomic environment. Gross margins increased 380 basis points year-over-year to 42.5%. Operating margins during the quarter increased to 13.9% from 11.1% in the year-ago quarter due to effective cost-control measures and prudent inventory management policies.

Smucker’s Beats, Raises Guidance

J.M. Smucker Company (SJM) reported second quarter results with earnings of $1.22 per share, which was well above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 99 cents. Quarterly earnings were up 21% compared to $1.01 reported in the prior-year quarter.

Net sales for the quarter grew 51.7% year-over-year, primarily due to the addition of the Folgers coffee business. Excluding Folgers, volumes increased 1%, driven by Pillsbury, Crisco oils, Jif peanut butter and Hungry Jack brands. These were partially offset by declines in canned milk, fruit spreads, foodservices and natural foods.

On a segment basis -- the U.S. retail coffee market segment posted $445.1 million in sales during the quarter. Volume also increased by approximately 5%. The continued expansion of the Dunkin' Donuts brand in the gourmet category and strong growth in traditional roast and ground coffee led to the improvement.

Stone Energy Outdoes Estimates

Stone Energy Corporation (SGY) reported third-quarter 2009 earnings of $1.06 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 66 cents and the year-earlier earnings of $1.04. The robust results were driven by increased production volumes and reduced costs.

Production during the quarter averaged 239 million cubic feet of gas equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), compared to average daily production of 209 MMcfe/d in the prior quarter and 129 MMcfe/d in the year-ago quarter. This increase was primarily due to the company’s successful execution of its hydraulic rig work over program, reduced cycle time and optimization of individual well rates.

Stone expects net daily production to average 225-235 MMcfe in the fourth quarter and 210-220 MMcfe in 2009.

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.

About the Analyst Blog

Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today by visiting http://at.zacks.com/?id=5508.

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Pozen, Sanofi-Aventis, Bristol-Myers, AstraZeneca and ADC Telecommunications Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:20:07 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 23, 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: Pozen (POZN), Sanofi-Aventis (SNY), Bristol-Myers (BMY), AstraZeneca (AZN) and ADC Telecommunications Inc. (ADCT).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Pozen Initiates New Phase III

This morning, Pozen (POZN) initiated phase III studies on PA-325/40, a fixed-dose combination of 325mg enteric coated aspirin and 40mg of immediate release omeprazole. The phase III program will consist of two pivotal trials conducted under a Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) agreed upon with the U.S. FDA, and one long-term safety study.

The two pivotal programs will enroll approximately 500 patients per study at over 100 sites around the U.S. The primary endpoint of the pivotal studies is the cumulative incidence of gastric ulcers over the six-month treatment period for PA32540 versus 325 mg of enteric-coated aspirin. The long-term study will enroll approximately 400 patients and assess safety over a period of one year.

Pozen is developing PA-325/40 for use in the secondary prevention of heart attacks and strokes in patients at risk for associated gastric ulcers. Aspirin is the No. 1 recommended agent for at-risk patients, with some 50 million Americans take daily aspirin therapy for secondary prevention of heart attacks and strokes.

However, according to data presented at the American College of Gastroenterology and at the American Heart Association meeting, the use of low-dose aspirin for cardiovascular disease prophylaxis is associated with a 2- to 4-fold increase in gastro-intestinal (GI) complications, including gastric ulcers. Enteric coating is not a sufficient to reduce the risk of GI bleeding, and thus the majority of patients that should be taking 325mg aspirin are non-compliant or taking suboptimal low-dose (81mg) "baby" aspirin instead.

Pozen’s PA-325/40 is designed to provide immediate-release omeprazole as a GI-protectant for patients taking full-dose 325mg daily aspirin therapy. If the phase III trials meet the primary endpoint of reduction in cumulative incidence of gastric ulcers, we expect PA-325/40 to be approved by the U.S. FDA with the full cardiovascular label claims of regular enteric-coated aspirin. This is a significant market opportunity in our view, considering less than 15% of the 50 million Americans on daily aspirin therapy are taking a GI-protectant such as omeprazole.

Recently, data from a retrospective analysis of patients that use Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) / Bristol-Myers’ (BMY) Plavix (clopidogrel) showed an increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) by as much as 50% while taking a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) such as AstraZeneca’s (AZN) omeprazole (Prilosec) or esomeprazole (Nexium). The data included analysis of outcomes from 16,700 patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention and continued Plavix for 12 months after the procedure.

ADC Dips on Weak Outlook

Yesterday, after market close, ADC Telecommunications Inc. (ADCT) declared financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009. Earlier, the Board of Directors of ADC had taken a decision to change its fiscal year from Oct 31 to Sep 30. As a result, fiscal year 2009 ended on Sep 30, 2009, which means the company got only two months as its fourth quarter. The fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 would, therefore, not be comparable to either the prior-year quarter or the previous quarter. For this reason, management has presented pro forma results for the three month period ending Sep 30 and its comparable quarter.

Actual revenue of fourth quarter 2009 was $183.9 million, below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $189 million. Quarterly pro forma revenue was $293.6 million, down 17.5% year-over-year. This significant decline in revenue is the result of the global economic recession across all the three business segments.

On a GAAP basis, net loss in the quarter was $19.8 million or a loss of 20 cents per share compared to a net loss of $5.6 million or a loss of 5 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. However, adjusted net income (excluding $25.5 million special charges and $0.6 million loss from discontinued operations, net of taxes) in the reported quarter was $6.3 million or an income of 6 cents per share, higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of an income of 4 cents per share.

Pro forma gross margin for the quarter was 34.6% compared to 33% in the year-ago quarter. This reflects the aggressive cost cutting measures taken by management during the past one year. Pro forma quarterly operating expenses were $113 million compared to $106.2 million in the prior-year quarter.

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: China Mobile, Alcatel-Lucent, China Unicom, China Telecom and Vodafone – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:07:34 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 23, 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: China Mobile (CHL), Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), China Unicom (CHU), China Telecom (CHA) and Vodafone (VOD).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

China Mobile Outlines 4G Plan

China Mobile (CHL), the world’s largest wireless carrier by subscriber, has revealed its plan to commence the trial run of its 4G network during World Expo 2010 to be held in Shanghai from May 1 to Oct 31, 2010. The company’s 4G service is based on the TD-LTE (Time Division Duplex Long Term Evolution) mobile broadband technology. Roughly 200 participants and 70 million visitors are expected to assemble at the Expo.

China Mobile has recently selected Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) for the responsibilities of design, construction, installation and integration of communication infrastructure to facilitate the 4G network trial. The TD-LTE network will provide advanced wireless services (including high-definition TV and ultra-fast broadband Internet access) to the visitors at the exposition.

The three major Chinese telecom operators China Mobile, China Unicom (CHU) and China Telecom (CHA) are investing heavily in Shanghai to improve the city’s network infrastructure, thereby ensuring the delivery of smooth network coverage for Word Expo 2010. China Mobile plans to invest RMB 15 billion ($2.19 billion) over the next three years in Shanghai.

China Mobile’s TD-LTE venture is being supported by the British telecom giant Vodafone (VOD).

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Dell Inc., Berkshire Hathaway, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:49:16 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 23, 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: Dell Inc. (DELL), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (BNI), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Dell Falls Short of Expectations

Dell Inc. (DELL) reported third quarter 2010 EPS of 23 cents, below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 27 cents.

Revenue for the quarter was $10.75 billion, down 17.0% from $12.97 billion reported in the year-ago quarter and up 1.0% from $10.62 billion reported in the previous quarter. The company’s third quarter reported revenue was adversely affected by the timing of the Windows 7 launch and due to backlog buildup in the company’s SMB and consumer businesses.

Large Enterprise posted revenue of $3.4 billion, an increase of 4.0% sequentially and decline of 23.0% year-over-year. In the last quarter, the company expended its networking partnership with Brocade and Juniper, and introduced products like PowerEdge 11g servers and expanded PowerVault storage systems.

Public revenue for the quarter was $3.7 billion, down 3.0% on sequentially and 7.0% from the year-ago quarter. Shipments were down 12.0% on a sequential basis, due to seasonality in the U.S. public sector business.

Small and Medium Business revenue for the quarter was $3.0 billion, up 5.0% sequentially and down 19.0% from the year-ago quarter. Shipments increased 9% sequentially. The segment benefited from steadily improving demand in both the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as better performance in EMEA during the second half.

Revenues for Consumer Business were down 10.0% year-over-year, but flat sequentially to $2.8 billion with shipments growing 4% sequentially.

Dell’s total sales in China, India, Brazil and Russia increased 18.0% sequentially and 5.0% over last year. China, the second-largest revenue generating country for Dell, reported revenue increase of 20.0% sequentially and 8.0% from the year-ago quarter.

Buffett Borrows for Rail Acquisition

Warren Buffett, the CEO and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) announced on Thursday to borrow $8 billion of loan for the acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (BNI). Berkshire Hathaway, which already owns a 22% stake in Burlington Northern, announced earlier this month it would acquire the rest for a total value of $34 billion. Buffet agreed to pay $100 a share in cash and stock to buy the rest of the company.

The $8 billion loan that will be provided by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) is intended to be paid back in three years’ time.

For Berkshire, the acquisition of Burlington Northern, or BNSF, the second largest railroad, will be its biggest to date. With it, Berkshire is adding a railroad transportation business with its already diverse range of businesses including retail, manufacturing and insurance, as well as several regional electric and gas utilities.

The acquisition is expected to close in early 2010 and is subject to Burlington Northern’s shareholder approval. Post acquisition, Burlington Northern will operate from its headquarters as a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.

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About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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Zacks Investment Research

Partisan bickering is not the solution for fostering economic growth

Prieur du Plessis — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:05:28 +0000

The main theme of the opinion piece by Representatives Hensarling and Ryan in the Wall Street Journal is poor economic policy choices of the current administration. "Economic history paints a very different picture from the opinion piece. Should political leaders be engaged in partisan rhetoric or in a serious discussion of how to make policy choices that will foster sustained economic growth?," asks Asha Bangalore in this guest contribution.

Zacks Releases Four Powerful ”Buy” Stocks: Universal Health Services, Inc, Crane Co., Nordstrom Inc. and Cooper Tire & Rubber Company – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:46:01 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 20, 2009 – Four free stock picks are being made available today on Zacks.com. The industry’s leading independent research firm highlights one Zacks #1 Rank Strong Buy or a Zacks #2 Rank Buy stock for each of the four main styles of investing: Aggressive Growth, Growth & Income, Momentum, and Value.

The four highlighted picks are: Universal Health Services, Inc (UHS), Crane Co. (CR), Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) and Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (CTB).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Four daily picks are offered free at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

Here is a summary of today's selected stocks that are now highly rated by Zacks:

Aggressive Growth – Universal Health Services, Inc (UHS)
Universal Health Services, Inc remains a good value as the Zacks Consensus Estimate continues to climb.

Zacks Guide to Aggressive Growth Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4309

Growth & Income – Crane Co. (CR)
Crane Co., which boasts an industry-leading yield of 2.7%, recently declared a quarterly dividend of 20 cents per share. The company also posted solid results for the third quarter, raising the lower end of its earnings outlook.

Zacks Guide to Growth & Income Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4310

Momentum – Nordstrom Inc. (JWN)
Nordstrom Inc. continues to trade near its 52-week high on the heels of better than expected Q3 results.

Zacks Guide to Momentum Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4311

Value – Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (CTB)
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has surprised on estimates 4 consecutive quarters by an average of 330.99%. The company trades is attractively valued with a forward P/E of 10.6.

Zacks Guide to Value Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4312

Today, Zacks is promoting its stock recommendations by offering four daily picks free to those who register at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

About Zacks

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Zacks.com

Aggressive Growth Stocks:
Contact: Bill Wilton
Phone: 312-265-9277

Growth & Income Stocks:
Contact: Alex Kolb
Phone: 312-265-9149

Momentum Stocks:
Contact: Michael Vodicka
Phone: 312-265-9226

Value Stocks:
Contact: Tracey Ryniec
Phone: 312-265-9232

Email: pr@zacks.com
Visit: www.zacks.com

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Zacks Investment Research

DrStockPick.com Stock Report! 11/20/09, BDX, PWRM, PTSC, IRF, BBOX, PRCP

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:15:17 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Friday Nov 20, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! ************************************************************** Power3 Medical Products, Inc. (OTCBB: PWRM), a leader in neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers and diagnostic tests, announced further international recognition of validity as the company’s President and CSO, Dr. Ira Goldknopf, will deliver an invited [...]

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Principal Financial, Sohu.com, Bank of America, Wal-Mart and Sears Holding Corp. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:10:10 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 20, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Principal Financial (PFG) as the Bull of the Day and Sohu.com (SOHU) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Bank of America (BAC), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Sears Holding Corp.(SHLD).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We are upgrading our recommendation on the shares of Principal Financial (PFG) to Outperform. The company's third quarter operating earnings were much ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate, driven primarily by the sequential improvement in domestic as well as global equity markets.

We believe that Principal's strong franchise within the pension sector, which is aided by its diversification both in terms of products and geography, positions it well to benefit from the gradual recovery of the credit market. However, rising unemployment is reducing the number of participants in existing employee benefit plans.

Though we are concerned about higher delinquencies in its commercial mortgage portfolio, we expect the company to benefit from its decent capital level and cost containment measures.

Bear of the Day:

While Sohu.com’s (SOHU) third-quarter earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate and were in line with the company s own guidance, the outlook for the fourth quarter was far below expectation. The company's operating expenses have been steadily going up, which we fear could limit the growth in earnings.

Moreover, recent delays in game launches, weak ad spending, which is hurting the brand advertising revenue and intense competition pose a threat. Strength in its online games and portal business are expected to be the strongest drivers for growth beyond 2010.

Currently, we see limited upside for Sohu's revenue and earnings growth in the near term. We downgrade the stock to Underperform from our previous Neutral rating and set a six-month price target of $45.00.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Initial Jobless Claims Flat(-ish)

With the pace of hiring as slow as it is, this hole in the safety net will have to be repaired as soon as possible. With no income, and more than six job seekers for every available job, those people are going to be in a world of hurt. Most Americans have very little in the way of savings to fall back on, especially outside of IRA’s and 401k plans. Tapping those would expose people to a 10% penalty and it would be considered taxable income for them. Yet many of them will probably be forced to do so, even if unemployment insurance is extended to them.

It is not just for humanitarian reasons that benefits should be extended. Without an income, people will have to do their banking at the local food bank, not at Bank of America (BAC), and even the local food bank needs a bailout these days. People will be hard-pressed to shop at even the Salvation Army, let alone Wal-Mart (WMT).

Extending benefits is one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus there is. It is far more effective than extending lavish tax credits to move-up homebuyers with incomes up to five times the national median. Unfortunately, the unemployed to not have as effective a lobby as the used home dealers (aka Realtors).

Sears Reports 3Q Loss

Sears Holding Corp.(SHLD), the fourth largest broadline retailer in the U.S., reported a third-quarter loss of $127 million or $1.09 per share compared to a loss of $146 million or $1.16 per share in the year-earlier quarter. Although Sears managed to reduce its quarterly loss year over year, this was the second consecutive quarterly loss for the company.

The quarterly figures included non-recurring items such as severance charges related to store closings, impairment charges, and pension plan expenses. Excluding the one-time charges, net loss was $94 million or 81 cents per share during the third quarter versus a net loss of $114 million or 90 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.

Sears reported total revenues of $10.2 billion during the quarter compared to $10.7 billion in the year-earlier quarter. The decrease in year-over-year sales was primarily due to a decline in comparable store sales partially offset by the effect of foreign currency translation. Domestic comparable store sales decreased 2.3% during the quarter, with the Sears Domestic division accounting for a 4.6% decrease partially offset by a 0.5% increase in the Kmart division.

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.

About the Analyst Blog

Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today by visiting http://at.zacks.com/?id=5508.

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts

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312-265-9380
Visit: www.zacks.com

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Apple Inc., KT Corp., SK Telecom, China Unicom and American Express Company – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:00:31 +0000

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: Apple Inc. (AAPL), KT Corp. (KTC), SK Telecom (SKM), China Unicom (CHU) and American Express Company (AXP).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

South Korea Welcomes iPhone

Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone is finally reaching the hands of South Korean mobile users. The country’s telecom regulator Korea Communications Commission (“KCC") has granted Apple the license to sell the iconic handset in the domestic cell phone market. KCC has also lifted the restrictions that prohibited location-based services on smartphone devices such as the Google Maps application on iPhone.

South Korea’s second-largest wireless carrier KT Corp. (KTC) will start booking Internet order for iPhone (3G & 3GS) soon and begin selling it from Nov 28, 2009. The company targets to initially sell 150,000 units priced between KRW250,000 and KRW300,000 (US$216 and US$260). KT’s peer SK Telecom (SKM), the largest mobile operator in the country, is still negotiating with Apple for securing distribution rights.

South Korean wireless market is technologically advanced and relatively mature with roughly 47 million total subscribers, representing 96% penetration of the country’s population. Currently, the country’s cellular handset market is dominated by local companies such as Samsung and LG Electronics, two of the world’s leading handset manufacturers.

With KCC’s approval, South Korea is set to become one of the last major Asian countries to get the iPhone. The device has been already launched by China Unicom (CHU) in China in October 2009. Additionally, iPhone is also being sold in other major markets such as India, Japan and Australia.

KCC’s approval to allow foreign handset vendors to enter the domestic market is aimed at increasing the options for brand-conscious cell phone users rather than just limiting their choice to indigenously manufactured devices. In April 2009, the Korean government cleared the path for foreign handset vendors by abolishing a mandate requiring all mobile handsets sold locally to use a home-grown software platform.

AmEx to Buy Revolution Money

American Express Company (AXP) said on Wednesday that it will acquire Internet payment platform Revolution Money for about $300 million.

The deal is expected to close in early 2010. Following the closure of the deal, Revolution Money would operate as a subsidiary of AmEx. The founder and chief executive of Revolution Money, Jason Hogg, will continue as president and chief executive.

St. Petersburg-based Revolution Money was founded by AOL co-founder Steve Case’s Revolution LLC in 2007. Revolution Money provides payments through an internet-based platform and issues prepaid cards that can be used for offline payments or to withdraw cash from ATMs in the U.S. Additionally, Revolution Money offers MoneyExchange, a service to remit money by people using social and instant messaging networks.

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About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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Visit: www.zacks.com

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Aetna Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc., WellPoint Inc., Assurant Inc. and Cigna Corp. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:51:53 +0000

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).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

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 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 level, thereby maintaining efficiency.

During the third quarter of 2009, Aetna earned $326.2 million, or 73 cents per share. That represents an increase from $277.3 million, or 58 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Membership has slumped throughout the health insurance sector as employers have cut jobs, reducing the number of people covered by employer-sponsored plans.

Aetna rivals UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) and WellPoint Inc. (WLP) both recently saw enrollment declines in the third quarter. Last week, Assurant Health, a division of Assurant Inc. (AIZ) announced that it has slashed 94 jobs. Earlier during the year, peers Cigna Corp. (CI) cut 1,100 jobs and Wellpoint Inc. eliminated nearly 1,500 jobs.

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Bank of America, MGIC, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Gymboree Corp. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:42:27 +0000

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: Bank of America (BAC), MGIC (MTG), Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE) and The Gymboree Corp. (GYMB).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Mortgage Delinquencies: Record High

The delinquency rate is going up much faster than foreclosures are being started. With unemployment high and rising, it is hard to see a lot of those delinquencies getting cured. Either the lenders will have to let people live indefinitely in their houses without paying (unlikely that the banks would be so generous) or we will see another huge wave of foreclosures coming.

The absolute number of houses that are either in foreclosure or 90 days or more past due now exceeds the number of existing homes available for sale. That is a huge overhang of shadow inventory (although some of it is out of the shadows and currently listed for sale) that should continue to put pressure on housing prices, even with all the extraordinary government support trying to prop up housing prices.

While unemployment is one serious driver of mortgage foreclosures because it affects the ability to pay, falling home prices are another driver. An underwater home is a home that is at high risk of going into foreclosure. It is simply economically irrational to continue to make payments on a $500,000 mortgage that is secured by a property that is only worth $400,000. This, then, continues the vicious cycle, where falling prices lead to foreclosures, which leads to more distressed supply, which leads to further pressure on home prices that in turn leads to yet more foreclosures.

The entire mortgage complex is not yet out of the woods. That complex includes the big banks like Bank of America (BAC), the mortgage insurers like MGIC (MTG) as well as Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). My inclination is to avoid all of them.

Gymboree Beats, but Outlook Down

The Gymboree Corp. (GYMB) reported its fiscal third quarter results after the closing bell on Wednesday. The company posted earnings of $34.8 million, a growth of 12.6% from $30.9 million recorded in the year-ago period. Earnings per share came in at $1.15, which topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.13.

Gymboree is a specialty retailer offering apparel and accessories for children under the Gymboree, Gymboree Outlet, Janie and Jack and Crazy 8 Brands, as well as play programs under the Gymboree Play & Music brand. At the end of October 2009, the company operated a total of 951 stores across the U.S., Canada and in Puerto Rico.

The company reported a nearly 2% increase in total sales to $269.1 million during the quarter, compared to $264.1 million in the year-ago quarter. The expansion was primarily driven by the addition of 78 new stores in the last one year period, partially offset by a 4% decline in same-store sales. During the quarter, the company opened a total of 25 new stores including six Gymboree stores, four Gymboree Outlets and 15 Crazy 8 stores.

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Toyota Motors, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A., ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp., and Royal Dutch Shell PLC – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:26:57 +0000

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: Toyota Motors (TM), Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (PBR), ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Toyota’s 1st Sales Gain in 15 Months

Toyota Motors (TM) has posted its first year-over-year monthly sales gain across the globe in 15 months during October. The company’s sales rose 4% to more than 630,000 vehicles. In the U.S., the company’s sales fell 3.5%.

However, in the domestic market Toyota’s sales grew 15% helped by tax breaks for purchases of environment-friendly cars. In China, the company saw a staggering rise of 40% in sales. Toyota returned to profitability in the second quarter of fiscal 2010 ended Sep 30, 2009, after reporting losses since the third quarter of fiscal 2009.

The company posted a profit of ¥21.8 billion ($232 million) or ¥6.96 per share (7 cents) per share. This profit was attributed to government incentive programs across the world – such as the U.S. “Cash for Clunkers"– that helped the company recoup its market share. Consolidated revenue in the quarter dipped 24% to ¥4.54 trillion ($48 billion).

Automotive revenue fell 24% to ¥4.11 trillion ($44 billion) while Financial Services revenue shrank 17% to ¥307 billion ($4 billion). This was on the back of a decline in vehicle sales in each region as well as a negative impact from the appreciation of yen. Sales volume declined 16% to 1.64 million units due to a decrease in volume in all the regions except North America.

Petrobras Profit Exceeds Ests

Brazilian energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (PBR), or Petrobras S.A. announced encouraging third quarter results, helped by strong performance from the Supply segment. Earnings per ADR came in at R$1.66 (96 cents), comfortably beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 80 cents. However, on a year-over-year basis, Petrobras’ earnings per ADR was down approximately 28.7%, hurt by lower prices of oil and natural gas. Still, they were better than the high double-digit earnings decline suffered by other majors such as ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX), and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A).

Total oil and gas production during the third quarter of 2009 reached 2,534 million oil-equivalent barrels per day, from 2,524 million in the previous quarter and 2,437 million in the same period of 2008. Compared to the third quarter of 2008, Brazilian oil and natural gas liquids production increased 4.8%, while international production was up 24.6%. However, Brazilian natural gas volumes were down 3.3% from the year-ago period, while international output during the quarter was down 6.0% year over year.

During the third quarter of 2009, the average sales price of oil in Brazil decreased 36.4% from the year-earlier period to $64 per barrel. Average sales price of international oil was down 16.9% year-over-year, reaching $57.16 per barrel. Regarding natural gas, average international sales price decreased 21.5% from the third quarter of 2008, while domestic price was down 61.5%.

Refining costs per barrel in Brazil was down 2.6% to $3.37 and internationally, it fell 45.2% to $3.51. Lifting cost per barrel moved down 24.5% in Brazil to $22.86, while overseas costs rose 9.4% to $5.6. Petrobras exported an average of 724,000 barrels of oil per day, 10.2% higher compared to the same period last year.

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Zacks Releases Four Powerful ”Buy” Stocks: OPNET Technologies, Inc., Gap Inc., Fossil Inc. and Ameriprise Financial Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:25:44 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 19, 2009 – Four free stock picks are being made available today on Zacks.com. The industry’s leading independent research firm highlights one Zacks #1 Rank Strong Buy or a Zacks #2 Rank Buy stock for each of the four main styles of investing: Aggressive Growth, Growth & Income, Momentum, and Value.

The four highlighted picks are: OPNET Technologies, Inc. (OPNT), Gap Inc. (GPS), Fossil Inc. (FOSL) and Ameriprise Financial Inc. (AMP).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Four daily picks are offered free at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

Here is a summary of today's selected stocks that are now highly rated by Zacks:

Aggressive Growth – OPNET Technologies, Inc. (OPNT)
OPNET Technologies, Inc. analysts are raising estimates after the company showed strong growth in a recent quarterly report.

Zacks Guide to Aggressive Growth Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4309

Growth & Income – Gap Inc. (GPS)
Gap Inc., which announces third-quarter results after today's closing bell, just declared a quarterly dividend of $0.085 per share, which translates into an industry-leading dividend yield of 1.5%. The company also reported sales growth for the month of October.

Zacks Guide to Growth & Income Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4310

Momentum – Fossil Inc. (FOSL)
Fossil Inc. recently gapped higher and hit a new 52-week high on a strong Q3 earnings surprise.

Zacks Guide to Momentum Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4311

Value – Ameriprise Financial Inc. (AMP)
Ameriprise Financial Inc. has seen revenue rise as the financial markets have rallied. The company has surprised on estimates 3 out of 4 quarters by an average of 50.73%. Ameriprise is trading with a forward P/E of 14.25.

Zacks Guide to Value Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4312

Today, Zacks is promoting its stock recommendations by offering four daily picks free to those who register at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

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Aggressive Growth Stocks:
Contact: Bill Wilton
Phone: 312-265-9277

Growth & Income Stocks:
Contact: Alex Kolb
Phone: 312-265-9149

Momentum Stocks:
Contact: Michael Vodicka
Phone: 312-265-9226

Value Stocks:
Contact: Tracey Ryniec
Phone: 312-265-9232

Email: pr@zacks.com
Visit: www.zacks.com

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Zacks Investment Research

Boeing Delivers First 777 Aircraft – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:40:00 +0000

Boeing Co. (BA) delivered its first 777-300ER (Extended Range) airplane to GE Capital Aviation Services and its lease customer Philippine Airlines. It is the first 777 in the fleet of Philippine Airlines. The aircraft was packed with relief supplies for victims of Typhoon Ketsana.

The airline has four more of this aircraft on order with Boeing. In the recently reported third quarter of fiscal 2009, the company booked 96 gross orders. The company finished the quarter with segmental backlog of $254 billion.

The Boeing 777-300ER is among the most efficient airplanes in the 300-to-400 seat segment, which would provide the airlines the flexibility to serve key markets worldwide while offering its passengers the highest levels of comfort and reliability. Additionally, the aircraft brings new twin-engine efficiency to the airline's long-haul fleet.

The aircraft is powered by General Electric GE90-115BLs, the world's largest and most powerful commercial jet engine. It has a cargo capacity of up to 7,120 cubic feet (201.6 cubic meters). The aircraft that was flown to Manila was packed with nearly 18,000 pounds of medical supplies and packaged meals that were obtained by three non-profit agencies, including AmeriCares, Humanitarian International Services Group and Kids Against Hunger.

Headquartered in Chicago, Boeing is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jet liners and military aerospace products (based on total sales). Boeing designs and produces commercial airplanes, defense systems, and civil and defense space systems. It is also the largest NASA contractor.

Non-airplane products include helicopters, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites, rocket engines, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems. We maintain our market Neutral recommendation on the shares.
Read the full analyst report on "BA"
Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Industry Rank Analysis Highlights: B.P. Prudhoe Bay Trust, San Juan Basin, Exxon Mobil and Petrobras – Press Releases

Dirk Van Dijk — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:00:05 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 19, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the latest Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks featured in this week’s analysis include B.P. Prudhoe Bay Trust (BPT), San Juan Basin (SJT), Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Petrobras (PBR).

Zacks Industry Rank Analysis is written by Dirk Van Dijk, CFA, Chief Equity Strategist for Zacks.com.

This week: Some Improvements in Energy

A good example of an industry that is showing both a very good overall rank and substantial improvement is Oil Royalty Trusts, which with a industry rank of 2.00 is tied for 4th place with several other industries. What sets it apart is that it improved 21 spots in its ranking as the average ranking of its components, up from 2.43 last week. Every one of the seven firms in the industry has a Zacks Rank of 2.

These are great vehicles for income-oriented investors, as they simply represent big pools of oil or natural gas in the ground. As the oil is produced, the proceeds are paid out in the form of dividends. It also means that the dividends are very variable with the price of oil.

The problem with them is that eventually the oil in the ground will run out, so some of that dividend is really a return of capital, not a return on capital. Thus if you are thinking about investing in them, look at how long those reserves will last, as well as the current income you are getting from them.

On the plus side, the tax code recognizes this, so a portion of the dividend is sheltered from the IRS. Unlike a regular exploration and production oil firm, there is no risk of a dry hole, nor are they exposed to changes in the price of drilling. If you think that the price of oil is headed higher, they are very attractive investments, especially if you want current income. Two of the larger names in the area that are worth considering are B.P. Prudhoe Bay Trust (BPT) and San Juan Basin (SJT).

A good example of a big important industry that is still distinctly mediocre in terms of its absolute standing is the Integrated Oil Industry, the home of some of the world’s largest firms like Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Petrobras (PBR). It currently has an average rank of 2.95, which puts it in 102nd place out of 206 industries ranked. That, however, is a substantial improvement from the 3.16 average last week, and was enough to lift it by 49 spots.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros " e-mail newsletter offers continuous coverage of the industries and the stocks poised to outperform the market. Subscribe to this free newsletter today by visiting http://at.zacks.com/?id=5611.

About Zacks

Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978 by Leonard Zacks. As a PhD in mathematics Len knew he could find patterns in stock market data that would lead to superior investment results. Amongst his many accomplishments was the formation of his proprietary stock picking system; the Zacks Rank, which continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3:1 margin. The best way to unlock the profitable stock recommendations and market insights of Zacks Investment Research is through our free daily email newsletter; Profit from the Pros. In short, it's your steady flow of Profitable ideas GUARANTEED to be worth your time! Register for your free subscription to Profit From the Pros by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5610.

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Contact: Dirk Van Dijk, CFA
Company: Zacks.com
Phone: 312-265-9211
Email: pr@zacks.com
Visit: www.zacks.com

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: CPFL Energia, The Medicines Company, Eastman Chemical Co., Dow Chemical Company and Dupont – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:38:59 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 19, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights CPFL Energia (CPL) as the Bull of the Day and The Medicines Company (MDCO) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Eastman Chemical Co.(EMN), Dow Chemical Company (DOW) and Dupont (DD).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We are maintaining our Outperform rating on CPFL Energia (CPL). The company posted in-line results for the third quarter of 2009, despite non-recurring items.

The company's outlook for the medium-term remains positive, mainly considering the more relaxed monetary policy in Brazil and the growing demand for electricity, even though there is the still-difficult business environment around the world.

Finally, CPL has a solid dividend payout and its valuation appears to be highly attractive, mainly considering the noncyclical nature of the company.

Bear of the Day:

The Medicines Company’s (MDCO) third-quarter loss per share of 6 cents missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 5 cents. Although Angiomax continues to contribute significantly to revenues, we are concerned about the product losing exclusivity in the U.S. in September 2010.

The entry of generics would be devastating for the company. Therefore, the onus is on management to acquire and develop the next generation of products to drive the top-line. One of those products was expected to be Cangrelor. However, the failure of the phase III CHAMPION program was a significant setback.

Meanwhile, the Cleviprex sales ramp has also been slow. We recommend avoiding the name until we gain more visibility on the Angiomax patent situation, the Cleviprex ramp and the future of Cangrelor and Oritavancin.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Eastman Boosts Guidance

Eastman Chemical Co. (EMN) has raised its full year 2009 earnings guidance to $3.50 per share from the initial guidance of $2 to $3 per share, driven by an expected strong growth in its core business. The company is hoping to deliver about 20% or over $6 per share growth in annual earnings by 2012, as the economy recovers completely.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $3.22 for 2009 and at 93 cents for the fourth quarter. Recently, Eastman’s close peers, Dow Chemical Company (DOW) and Dupont (DD) have also predicted strong growth in earnings.

Eastman stands to benefit from its business restructuring and cost-cutting measures, which are expected to result in cost savings of more than $200 million for the full year 2009. Eastman’s earnings of $1.38 per share in the third quarter of 2009 had bettered the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.13 per share helped by lower costs.

The company managed margins by reducing its operating costs. However, lower selling prices and volumes across all major segments resulted in a 21% year-over-year fall in Eastman’s top line of $1.3 billion for the quarter. Eastman’s core businesses, including Coatings, Adhesives, Specialty Polymers and Inks, Fibers, Performance Chemicals and Intermediates as well as Specialty Plastics suffered on weak demand from the automotive, building and construction, and packaging markets.

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.

About the Analyst Blog

Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today by visiting http://at.zacks.com/?id=5508.

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: PG&E Corporation, Edison International, Autodesk Inc., Adobe Systems Inc. and Apple Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:28:45 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 19, 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: PG&E Corporation (PCG), Edison International (EIX), Autodesk Inc. (ADSK), Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) and Apple Inc. (AAPL).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

California May Ban High-Watt TVs

In California, an average residential customer’s 10% electrical consumption goes to television sets. However the regulatory apprehension is that with upgrade to larger television sets the consumption pattern for television sets will spike by as much as 8% annually. This is a worrisome trend for the power hungry state which has to import around 15% of its requirements from outside the state to meet its huge requirement.

The regulators are dreading a return to the gory days of the California electricity crisis at the beginning of the century. The crisis was aggravated as the then government kept the price of electricity artificially low, encouraging wastage.

An energy-efficient TV would save a household roughly $30 a year per set in lowered electricity costs. If all 35 million television sets in the state were replaced with more efficient sets, Californians would save $8.1 billion over 10 years, according to the Energy Commission report. The standard also could help California meet the goals of its 2006 global warming law, which calls for the state to cut greenhouse gases 25% by 2020.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, utilities operating in California are spending big money. California’s renewable portfolio standard requires utilities to generate 33% of power from renewable sources by fiscal 2020. PG&E Corporation (PCG) plans to invest around $13 billion in the period 2009 - 2011. Another utility, Edison International’s (EIX) subsidiary Southern California Edison, is projecting capital expenditures for the period 2009 - 2013 in the range of $16.8 billion - $19.8 billion.

Autodesk Beats, Guidance Mixed

Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) revenues of $416.9 million were down 31.3% year over year, mainly due to a decrease of 43.9% year over year in Licenses revenues and partially due to a 2.8% decrease in Maintenance revenues. However, revenues were flat sequentially.

By geography, revenue from the Americas increased 2% sequentially but decreased 25% from the year-ago period. EMEA revenues declined 3% sequentially and 35% year over year on a constant currency basis. Revenue from the Asia Pacific decreased 7% sequentially and 33% year over year on a constant currency basis. Revenues from emerging economies represented 15% of total revenue and decreased 3% sequentially and 45% year over year on a constant currency basis.

Moreover, revenues from 3D design solutions were down 25% from the year-ago period but were flat sequentially. Revenues from 2D horizontal and vertical products declined 37% year over year and decreased marginally from the last quarter. We are positive on Autodesk’s migration from 2D products to 3D products, which have a higher margin.

Combined revenue from AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT declined 39% year over year. Although the company has a strong market position in the "mainstream" CAD market, it faces competition from Dassault Systemes. Moreover, the company competes against Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) and Apple Inc. (AAPL), among others.

Autodesk has a strong balance sheet with cash, investments and securities totaling $1.05 billion at the end of quarter and no long-term debt.

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About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

About Zacks

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Ford, CarMax, AutoNation, Apartment Investors and Equity Residential – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:20:18 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 19, 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: Ford (F), CarMax (KMX), AutoNation (AN), Apartment Investors (AIV) and Equity Residential (EQR).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

CPI Up on Cars, Energy

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October rose by 0.3%, a little bit hotter than the 0.2% that was expected. If one strips out volatile food and energy prices to get the core consumer price index, prices were up 0.2%, also one tick higher than the 0.1% expected.

A rise in energy prices was not unexpected. Heck, one only has to see what the price of crude oil and natural gas have done over the last month or so. For the month, the price of energy rose 1.5% overall. The rise was sharpest among energy commodities, like gasoline and heating oil, which rose by 1.9%. Energy services, like electricity rose a more moderate -- but still steep -- 0.9%.

The rise in core consumer prices was a bit more of a surprise. However, the rising prices were very narrow, with almost all of the increases due to higher prices for cars and trucks, both new and used. For the month, the prices of new cars were up 1.6% while the prices for used cars jumped by 3.4%. That is very good news for Ford (F) as well as indirectly for the U.S. taxpayer, since we are now major stockholders at both General Motors and Chrysler.

The increase for used cars is also beneficial for the car dealers like CarMax (KMX) and AutoNation (AN). The Cash for Clunkers program continues to reverberate through the economy, even though it ended over two months ago. Every car that was turned in under the program was destroyed (at least the engine was, other parts could be stripped and reused). This reduction in supply helped support prices of the remaining used cars. This is the third month in a row of sharply higher prices for used cars, coming on top of a 1.6% increase in September and a 1.9% increase in August. I suspect that this effect is likely to wear off in the near future.

On a year-over-year basis, the overall consumer price index is down 0.2%, while the core consumer price index is up 1.7%, both of which are historically very low. The huge decline in energy prices happened a year ago and is in the process of rolling off. Thus look for the headline consumer price index to start to outpace the core consumer price index in the months to come on a year-over-year basis.

The divergence could become very large. The reason is that a very large part of the index is for Shelter, and the biggest part of that is rent -- both the normal rent that is paid by people who do not own their own houses, and "owners equivalent rent" (OER) or what it would cost you to rent an identical house next door to where you are living now. OER is how the government measures housing prices for inflation; what happens to the actual price of houses is totally irrelevant when it comes to measuring inflation. Thus, measured inflation was very much under control, even as the price of houses were soaring during the housing bubble, and the CPI did not decline as the bubble was bursting.

Together, regular rent paid to landlords and OER make up over 30% of the total consumer price index, and almost 40% of the core consumer price index. The overall price of shelter was unchanged in October, the second month in a row it was unchanged. Regular rent fell by 0.1%, over the last three months it is down at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.7%, and it is unchanged over the last six months.

Since most people own rather than rent where they live, OER has a much higher weight in the index (24.4% of the total index vs. 6.0%). It was unchanged on the month, is off by 0.3% over the last three months and up by just 0.2% over the last six months. However, if the reports from the big housing-oriented REIT’s like Apartment Investors (AIV) and Equity Residential (EQR) are to be believed, then the decline in regular rents is significantly understated.

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: D.R. Horton, Pulte, Owens Corning, Masco and EnCana Corporation – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:13:36 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 19, 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: D.R. Horton (DHI), Pulte (PHM), Owens Corning (OC), Masco (MAS) and EnCana Corporation (ECA).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Housing Starts, Permits Plunge

Housing prices are still under pressure, despite unprecedented steps by the Federal government and the Federal Reserve to prop up the price of that asset class. Artificial government support is not as durable a way to prop up prices as a better balance between supply and demand would be.

Well, if prices are going down, the last thing you want to see is more new supply on the market. Thus, in the long term, the decline in housing starts is a good thing. If we stop building houses for long enough, then population growth will start to bring the vacancy rate down. On the other hand, as Lord Keynes famously said, “In the long run we are all dead."

One thing is abundantly clear: this report was not good news for the homebuilders like D.R. Horton (DHI) and Pulte (PHM), nor was it encouraging to suppliers to the industry like Owens Corning (OC) or Masco (MAS). It is also bad news for millions of construction workers who are now unemployed.

It is also yet another reason for the Fed to keep interest rates down very low for a very long time. The only reason for the Fed to consider increasing the Fed funds rate would be if we were going to have a very sharp V shaped recovery. With Housing Starts and Permits falling again, that just simply is not going to happen.

EnCana Misses, Profit Tumbles

EnCana Corporation (ECA) – a major Canadian oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) company – reported weak third quarter results, hit by lower prices and volumes. Operating earnings per share, excluding hedging and foreign exchange effects, came in at $1.03. This fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.11 and way behind the year-ago profit of $1.92.

Revenues were down 64.2% year over year to $3.9 billion. During the quarter, total production was down 7.0% to 4,387 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), of which 81% was natural gas. Natural gas production decreased roughly 9.3% year-over-year to 3,551 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), while oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs) production was up 3.7% to 139 thousand barrels per day (MBbls/d).

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Zacks.com featured expert Kevin Matras highlights: AVX Corp., Macquarie Infrastructure Company LLC, Newmont Mining Corp., Shaw Communications, Inc. and SLM Corp. – Press Releases

Kevin Matras — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:05:57 +0000

Chicago, IL – November 18, 2009- Kevin Matras shows how to calculate a stock's price target and how to find stocks currently trading below them. Stocks in this week’s article include AVX Corp. (NYSE: AVX), Macquarie Infrastructure Company LLC (NYSE: MIC), Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM), Shaw Communications, Inc. (NYSE: SJR) and SLM Corp. (NYSE: SLM).

Screen of the Week written by Kevin Matras of Zacks Investment Research:

Today, after a pretty big run up, people are still wondering what their stock's price target is, but now they're wondering how high it's going to go. Either way, it's important for everyone to know how to calculate their stock's price target.

You can do this by using either technicals or fundamentals.

Today, I'm going to focus on fundamentals.

And we're going to use the P/E ratio to calculate it.

Many people use P/E ratios to determine a company's perceived undervaluation or overvaluation.

But you can also use the P/E ratio to determine a stock's upside and downside price targets as well.

For the rest of this Screen of the Week article, please visit Zacks.com at: http://www.zacks.com/commentary/12795/

Sign up now for your free trial today and start picking better stocks immediately. And with the backtesting feature, you can test your ideas to see how you can improve your trading in both up markets and down markets. Don't wait for the market to get better before you decide to do better. Start learning how to be a better trader today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5529

Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.

About Screen of the Week

Zacks.com created the first and best screening system on the web earning the distinction as the "#1 site for screening stocks" by Money Magazine. But powerful screening tools is just the start. That is why Zacks created the Screen of the Week to highlight profitable stock picking strategies that investors can actively use. Each week, Zacks Profit from the Pros free email newsletter shares a new screening strategy. Learn more about it here http://at.zacks.com/?id=5530

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Releases Four Powerful ”Buy” Stocks: Cantel Medical Corp, Costco Wholesale Corporation, China Green Agriculture, Inc. and DryShips Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:06:22 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 2009 – Four free stock picks are being made available today on Zacks.com. The industry’s leading independent research firm highlights one Zacks #1 Rank Strong Buy or a Zacks #2 Rank Buy stock for each of the four main styles of investing: Aggressive Growth, Growth & Income, Momentum, and Value.

The four highlighted picks are: Cantel Medical Corp (CMN), Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST), China Green Agriculture, Inc. (CGA) and DryShips Inc. (DRYS).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Four daily picks are offered free at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

Here is a summary of today's selected stocks that are now highly rated by Zacks:

Aggressive Growth – Cantel Medical Corp (CMN)
Cantel Medical Corp posted yet another earnings surprise with a 65% increase in net income.

Zacks Guide to Aggressive Growth Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4309

Growth & Income – Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST)
Costco Wholesale Corporation recently posted October net sales of $5.68 billion, a 7% increase over last year’s $5.30 billion. Comparable sales spiked 5% year-over-year.

Zacks Guide to Growth & Income Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4310

Momentum – China Green Agriculture, Inc. (CGA)
China Green Agriculture, Inc. is once again pressuring its 52-week high after jumping higher on a recent third-quarter earnings surprise.

Zacks Guide to Momentum Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4311

Value – DryShips Inc. (DRYS)
DryShips Inc. is now a Zacks #1 Rank (strong buy) stock as estimates rise after a tough year where earnings per share dropped by 90%. The stock is now cheap, trading at just 6.6x forward earnings.

Zacks Guide to Value Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4312

Today, Zacks is promoting its stock recommendations by offering four daily picks free to those who register at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

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Aggressive Growth Stocks:
Contact: Bill Wilton
Phone: 312-265-9277

Growth & Income Stocks:
Contact: Alex Kolb
Phone: 312-265-9149

Momentum Stocks:
Contact: Michael Vodicka
Phone: 312-265-9226

Value Stocks:
Contact: Tracey Ryniec
Phone: 312-265-9232

Email: pr@zacks.com
Visit: www.zacks.com

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: NeurogesX, Sears Holdings, Target Corporation, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:25:31 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights NeurogesX (NGSX) as the Bull of the Day and Sears Holdings (SHLD) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Target Corporation (TGT), Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(WMT) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

NeurogesX (NGSX) received some very good news this week when the U.S. FDA approved Qutenza for the management of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Management will now move forward with preparing for the commercial launch during the first half of 2010.

Securing reimbursement and hiring the sales force remain the next biggest hurdles for the company. However, with approval now complete and the financial position solid ($57 million in cash on hand), we remain very position on the NeurogesX story.

We recommend accumulating the stock at today's level up to $12 per share. Our rating is Outperform.

Bear of the Day:

Sears Holdings’ (SHLD) vulnerability to continued economic downturn is adversely affecting its top-line growth. The company recorded an 8.6% decline in same-store sales and closed 28 non-performing stores during fiscal 2009 second quarter amid a slump in the housing sector and sluggish apparel sales.

Moreover, intense competition from giant discounters, mass merchants and regional stores coupled with the seasonality of business and exposure to foreign currency fluctuations severely undermine the company's future growth prospects and sustainability.

Consequently, we have changed the recommendation for the company from Neutral to Underperform as we anticipate it to perform well below the broader market.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Target’s Earnings Top Estimates

Target Corporation (TGT) recently reported better-than-expected third-quarter 2009 results.

Net earnings for the quarter jumped 18.4% year-over-year to $436 million, on the heels of a 5.5% decline in credit card expenses, an 18.3% fall in net interest expense, and lower effective tax rate (36.1% in the quarter as against 41.7% in the prior-year quarter).

Target’s quarterly earnings of 58 cents a share outdid the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 49 cents. Earnings for the quarter rose 18.6% year-over-year from 49 cents a share reported in the year-ago quarter. Total revenue for the quarter inched up by 1.1% to $15,276 million. Retail sales rose 1.4% to $14,789 million, but the revenue from the Credit Card segment fell 7.5% to $487 million.

Despite the stronger-than-expected result, Target holds a cautious outlook about its fourth-quarter results. Realizing the fact that customers are reluctant to pay higher prices, Target announced an aggressive price cut on DVDs, books and toys for the upcoming holiday season.

Target, which currently operates 1,743 stores in 49 states, competes with other major discount retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(WMT) and Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN).

Comparable-store sales for the quarter fell 1.6%, an improvement over a decline of 3.3% posted in the prior-year quarter. The number of transactions rose to 0.6%, but the average transaction amount dropped 2.2% in the quarter.

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.

About the Analyst Blog

Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Capital One Financial Corp. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:15:18 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 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: American Express Co. (AXP), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Capital One Financial Corp. (COF).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Mixed News for Credit Card Issuers

U.S. credit card issuers have reported a drop in the default rate for October, though delinquencies are rising as a result of continuing stress on consumers. While a decrease in the default rate reflects a decline in late payments in the first half of the year, the increase in delinquencies is bad news for the sector as it implies that the companies could experience more charge-offs in the coming quarters.

Consumers remain under stress as a result of the weakness in the housing market, combined with job losses. Recently, Fitch has also expressed its concern about the credit card issuers in the U.S. Fitch expects U.S. credit card issuers’ earnings to remain challenged over the near term as a result of soaring unemployment, bankruptcies and losses.

The default rate (or charge-off rate) has improved in October from the prior month. For American Express Co. (AXP) it was down 60 basis points (bps) to 7.8%, while for Bank of America Corp. (BAC) the rate dropped 103 bps to 13.22% in October. The situation was the same for JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Capital One Financial Corp. (COF). JPMorgan’s default rate declined 10 bps to 8.02%, Citigroup’s defaults fell 136 bps to 8.79% and Capital One's charge-off rate decreased 73 bps to 9.04%.

However, we are concerned about the rise in delinquencies which increased 34 basis points to 5.72% in October at Capital One, 26 bps to 4.95% at JPMorgan and 6 bps to 7.59% at Bank of America. However, delinquencies remain unchanged at American Express.

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: PNC Financial Services, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon Corp, MasterCard and JPMorgan Chase – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:10:27 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 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: PNC Financial Services (PNC), Bank of America (BAC), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK), MasterCard (MA) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

BofA Continues CEO Hunt

Recently, William Demchak of the PNC Financial Services (PNC) was offered the position of the next CEO of the Bank of America (BAC). However, the offer was turned down by Demchak.

We suspect Demchak declined the offer as the pay package is likely to be among the least competitive in the industry, especially since the Obama administration's pay czar took the axe to seven institutions' pay plans, chopping the average high-end salary by 50%. Moreover, the bank is also operating under a memorandum of understanding with regulators, who are scrutinizing the top gun's every decision.

The present CEO of the Bank of America, Mr. Ken Lewis, is set to leave the position, stepping down at the end of the year. It may be noted that he succumbed to the pressure to resign after his company’s Merrill Lynch acquisition.

Earlier this month, Robert Kelly of the Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK) was offered the role of CEO by the bank. Former Bear Stearns CEO Alan Schwartz is among those reportedly approached who turned down the CEO job offer, as did MasterCard (MA) President Ajay Banga. Others may include Moffett and Charlie Scharf, who runs JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) retail operations, among others.

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Cisco System Inc., Logitech International SA, Hewlett-Packard Company, 3Com Corp. and Citrix Systems Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:00:46 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 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: Cisco System Inc. (CSCO), Logitech International SA (LOGI), Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ), 3Com Corp. (COMS) and Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

M&A in Videoconferencing Market

Merger and acquisition activities are heating up in the unified collaborative solutions market that provides videoconferencing. Prompted by the severe economic downturn, business enterprises on a global basis are restricting travel budgets to control costs. This makes high-definition telepresence solutions a cost-induced alternative in an increasingly interactive world. This market stands to gain in the near future since enterprises, governments, and educational institutions are increasingly recognizing the productivity-enhancing benefits of video conferencing.

Yesterday, Cisco System Inc. (CSCO) raised its acquisition price to $3.41 billion for Tandberg ASA, the largest videoconferencing product maker in the world with around 35% market share. Cisco itself is a developer of high-end videoconferencing solutions, which mainly comprises custom-designed digital boardrooms for executives and boards to hold global meetings. The merged entity will definitely be a much bigger player in the industry. On Nov 10, computer accessories maker Logitech International SA (LOGI) announced that the company will purchase privately held LifeSize Communications Inc, a developer of high-end high-definition videoconferencing gear for $405 million.

Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) another major player in this field has decided to acquire 3Com Corp. (COMS) for $2.7 billion. This acquisition will strengthen Hewlett-Packard’s videoconferencing solutions beside its IP-based data center related solutions. Virtual desktop maker Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) has recently strengthened its web conferencing solutions by adding integrated toll-free audio services for its GoToMeeting Corporate and GoToWebinar product-lines.

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Home Depot, Ford, TRW Automotive, Revlon and Estee Lauder – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:46:14 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 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: Home Depot (HD), Ford (F), TRW Automotive (TRW), Revlon (REV) and Estee Lauder (EL).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Home Depot Sales Dip

Home Depot (HD), the largest home improvement retailer in the world, reported net income of $689 million or 41 cents per share in the third quarter of fiscal 2009, compared to net income of $756 million or 45 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter.

The company witnessed severe stress from declining market fundamentals during the quarter in a challenging macroeconomic environment and weakness in the U.S. housing sector. Total sales decreased 8.0% year-over-year to $16.4 billion, while overall same-store sales decreased 6.9%.

In order to tide over the storm, Home Depot has decided to focus on core retail activities and has exited businesses like EXPO, THD Design Center, Yardbirds, and HD Bath. In addition, the company has taken strict cost-control measures and has initiated prudent inventory management policies.

Industrial Production Rebound Stalls

A major factor in the surge in August and September was the rebuilding of inventories of autos by companies like Ford (F) and its suppliers like TRW Automotive (TRW) that were depleted by the Cash for Clunkers program. It looks like that bounce is over.

Production fo business equipment fell by 0.2%, following a decline of 0.4% in September and a 1.1% increase in August. On a year-over-year basis, overall production of finished goods is down by 4.5%. However, production of consumer goods has held up much better than that of business equipment, with consumer goods down byt 2.9% year over year and business equipment down by 6.8%.

Keep in mind that the consumer share of the overall economy surged to a record high 70.98% in the third quarter, while the investment share of the economy languished at a near record low of just 11.04%. Businesses simply see no reason to buy more equipment to expand production. The reason why businesses have no desire to invest in new plants and equipment is that they have so much existing equipment that is just sitting around and gathering dust.

The other information in the report is capacity utilization. The good news is that overall capacity utilization edged up to 70.7% in October, marking the fourth straight month of improvement. The bad news is that it is simply an awful absolute level. The long-term average total capacity utilization is 80.9%. Even after four months of increases, we are still below the all-time record low prior to this downturn of 70.9% set in December of 1983 (data on capacity utilization goes back to 1967).

The other bad news is that the rate of improvement is slowing dramatically. Overall capacity utilization bottomed out in June at 68.3%. It then gained 0.7% in July and 1.0% in August. The rate of improvement slowed to 0.5% in September and was just 0.2% in October. That is not a good trend.

Further, over the past year, overall capacity has shrunk by 0.8%, which helps goose the numbers and makes them look better, although I don’t think that Revlon (REV) and Estee Lauder (EL) combined have enough lipstick to make this pig look good. All of the improvement was due to higher capacity utilization by utilities, which is the one area that has actually increased capacity over the last year (by 1.8%). Utility utilization rose to 79.0% from 77.9% in September. Since it is so weather dependent, utility utilization is by far the least important measure, and it is actually not too far below its long-term average of 86.8%.

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About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

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Protest in Support of Khodorkovsky at the Russia National Exhibition in Chicago

Robert Amsterdam — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:06:04 +0000

Earlier today we were emailed regarding a small demonstration to be held tomorrow morning in front of the Drake Hotel in Chicago, IL in support of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, coinciding with the Russian National Exhibition (a business conference looking to drum...

DrStockPick.com Stock Report! 11/17/09, GAMR, PWRM, WOLF, IIIN, AMCS, RLGT

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:46:14 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Tuesday November 17, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! ************************************************************** Power3 Medical Products, Inc. (OTCBB: PWRM), a leader in neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers and diagnostic tests, announces further international recognition of validity as the company’s President and CSO, Dr. Ira Goldknopf, will deliver an [...]

Zacks Releases Four Powerful ”Buy” Stocks: Ctrip.com International Ltd., Casey’s General Stores Inc., Skechers USA Inc. and Bristow Group Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:49:04 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 17, 2009 – Four free stock picks are being made available today on Zacks.com. The industry’s leading independent research firm highlights one Zacks #1 Rank Strong Buy or a Zacks #2 Rank Buy stock for each of the four main styles of investing: Aggressive Growth, Growth & Income, Momentum, and Value.

The four highlighted picks are: Ctrip.com International Ltd. (CTRP), Casey's General Stores Inc. (CASY), Skechers USA Inc. (SKX) and Bristow Group Inc. (BRS).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Four daily picks are offered free at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

Here is a summary of today's selected stocks that are now highly rated by Zacks:

Aggressive Growth – Ctrip.com International Ltd. (CTRP)
Ctrip.com International Ltd. has been taking advantage of the rebound in the Chinese economy. The company is expected grow 2009 earnings by 35.79%.

Zacks Guide to Aggressive Growth Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4309

Growth & Income – Casey's General Stores Inc. (CASY)
Casey's General Stores Inc. is watching analysts boost estimates ahead of reporting fiscal second quarter results in early December. For the year ending April 2010, the Zacks Consensus Estimate jumped from $2.19 to $2.21 per share in 1 month’s time.

Zacks Guide to Growth & Income Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4310

Momentum – Skechers USA Inc. (SKX)
Skechers USA Inc. reported third-quarter results on Oct 21 that came in far ahead of expectations on strong international sales and margin expansion.

Zacks Guide to Momentum Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4311

Value – Bristow Group Inc. (BRS)
Bristow Group Inc. has surprised on estimates 3 out of the last 4 quarters by an average of 10.50%. The company is trading at 11.7x forward earnings.

Zacks Guide to Value Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4312

Today, Zacks is promoting its stock recommendations by offering four daily picks free to those who register at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

About Zacks

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Aggressive Growth Stocks:
Contact: Bill Wilton
Phone: 312-265-9277

Growth & Income Stocks:
Contact: Alex Kolb
Phone: 312-265-9149

Momentum Stocks:
Contact: Michael Vodicka
Phone: 312-265-9226

Value Stocks:
Contact: Tracey Ryniec
Phone: 312-265-9232

Email: pr@zacks.com
Visit: www.zacks.com

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Earnings Trends Highlights: Caterpillar, Eaton and Illinois Tool Works – Press Releases

Dirk Van Dijk — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:30:14 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 17, 2009 - Zacks Research Equity Strategist, Dirk Van Dijk says that S&P 500 earnings are continuing to show red ink. He tracks companies on the Zacks.com web site, naming names, while forecasting trends for the months ahead.

Great Earnings Season Coming to an End

It’s almost time to close the books on a fantastic earnings season. With over 90% of reports in, there have been 353 which have exceeded expectations while only 66 have fallen short, a ratio of 5.35. While it is true that most companies will normally try to under-promise and over-deliver, this quarter the beats are beating the misses by about twice the normal margin of 3:1.

Nor have all the surprises only been by a penny or two, but there have been lots of companies that simply crushed the earnings estimates. The median surprise is a very high 7.11%. Over the last five years, a median surprise of about 3.0% has been normal.

Part of the reason is that expectations were set very low going into the earnings season. For most companies, their earnings are still below year-ago levels, just not as far down as people thought they would be. Only 202 firms have posted positive year-over-year growth versus 259 which have fallen short of year-ago levels -- a ratio of 0.78.

The disparity between firms beating estimates but having negative year-over-year earnings growth is particularly noticeable in Tech, where the earnings surprise ratio is an awesome 8.50. However, the growth ratio (# of firms with positive growth/# of firms with negative growth) is just 0.60. Energy’s surprise ratio is not quite as high, at 3.38, but the disparity to its growth ratio, at just 0.05, is extreme. Staples and Medical have been both growing earnings and beating expectations.

For Industrials, some of the firms in this sector that have seen double-digit increases in both their mean estimate, and double digit numbers of estimate increases and had no cuts over the last month include Caterpillar (CAT), Eaton (ETN) and Illinois Tool Works (ITW).

Want stock picks from Zacks Equity Research that are based on earnings estimates? Subscribe to the free "Profit from the Pros" newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5617.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5618.

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Contact: Dirk Van Dijk, CFA
Company: Zacks.com
Phone: 312-265-9211
Email: pr@zacks.com
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Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Sealed Air Corporation, Hologic, Inc., Genzyme Corp., Shire plc and Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:15:47 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 17, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Sealed Air Corporation (SEE) as the Bull of the Day and Hologic, Inc. (HOLX) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Genzyme Corp.(GENZ), Shire plc (SHPGY) and Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc. (PLX).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Sealed Air Corporation (SEE) reported third quarter 2009 EPS of 38 cents, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 33 cents and the prior-year EPS of 28 cents. The company raised its full-year 2009 EPS guidance to a range between $1.37-$1.45.

The company expects to continue to realize benefits from its cost reduction and productivity programs in the fourth quarter. Also, the company is witnessing improved market conditions in developing nations. Sealed Air posted double-digit sales increases in some of these markets.

Based on the improved outlook, as well as the company's efforts to revitalize its bottom-line, we are upgrading the rating on the stock to Outperform.

Bear of the Day:

Hologic, Inc. (HOLX) reported fourth quarter earnings of 28 cents per share, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 26 cents, but a couple of cents below the year-ago earnings. For fiscal 2009, the company earned $1.17 per share, a cent below the year-ago earnings.

Revenues declined 8.9% in the reported quarter and 2% in fiscal 2009. We remain concerned about the decline, which is largely attributable to the stringent economic and capital spending environment.

Furthermore, Hologic's strategy to grow by acquisitions has inherent risks. Strong competition confronting the company's products also concerns us. Consequently, we downgrade the stock to Underperform with a price target of $14.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Contamination Issues Haunt GENZ

Biotech company Genzyme Corp.(GENZ), faced yet another setback recently when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that vials of five drugs marketed by the company were found to be contaminated.

The affected drugs include Cerezyme, Myozyme, Fabrazyme, Aldurazyme and Thyrogen. All these drugs, excluding Thyrogen, are indicated for the treatment of rare disorders. The vials were found to be contaminated with stainless steel fragments, non-latex rubber from the vial stopper, and fiber-like material from the manufacturing process which could potentially harm patients.

As adverse events are yet to be reported and given the lack of alternative treatments for these drugs which treat rare disorders, the FDA did not issue a product recall. Instead, Genzyme has issued letters to U.S. healthcare providers reminding them to conduct a visual inspection of the vials and to filter them before using the products.

Genzyme has been battling with contamination issues at its Allston manufacturing plant since June when the company had to temporarily halt production due to contamination.

The temporary shutdown of the plant had a severe impact on the company’s financial results with sales of Genzyme’s lead product, Cerezyme, dropping 69.7% to $93.6 million in the third quarter of 2009. In addition to Cerezyme, Fabrazyme sales were also affected (down 8%).

Although Genzyme expects to resume supply of new lots of Cerezyme from late November, we fear that concerns regarding contamination may drive patients and physicians to use Shire plc’s (SHPGY) velaglucerase alfa and Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc.’s (PLX) Uplyso, both of which are currently available under the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) expanded access program.

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.

About the Analyst Blog

Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today by visiting http://at.zacks.com/?id=5508.

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Citigroup Inc., Liberty Global Inc., Comcast Corp., Deutsche Telekom AG and Vodafone Plc – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:00:07 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 17, 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: Citigroup Inc. (C), Liberty Global Inc. (LBTYA), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Deutsche Telekom AG (DT) and Vodafone Plc (VOD).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Citi to Sell Stake in Bellsystem24

Citigroup Inc. (C) announced that it will sell stake in Bellsystem24 to U.S. private equity firm, Bain Capital Partners, in a deal that values the Japanese call center operator at $1.1 billion.

The company announced on Sunday that it will sell its 93.5% controlling stake in Bellsystem24 − which it held through its Citigroup Capital Partners Japan Ltd. − to Bain Capital Partners through a tender offer. The tender offer is expected to start on or before Nov 20 and be completed on Dec 30, 2009. Under the terms of the deal, Citi will receive 93.5 billion of yen ($1 billion) in cash.

Following the completion of the deal, Citi Holdings’ assets will be reduced by $1.2 billion. However, Citi’s net income and capital ratios will not be significantly impacted by this stake sale, the company said.

Liberty to Acquire Unitymedia

Liberty Global Inc. (LBTYA) announced it will acquire all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of Unitymedia GmbH, the second largest cable TV operator in Germany. The total consideration will be approximately $5.2 billion. Liberty Global will acquire 100% of the shares of Unitymedia for an equity purchase price of around $3 billion and will also assume around $2.2 billion of net outstanding debt of Unitymedia. The deal is expected to be completed by the first half of 2010 subject to regulatory clearance.

Liberty Global is the second largest cable TV operator in the world. However, it is the largest international cable TV operator since Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), the largest cable MSO in the world does not have any operation outside the U.S. As of now, the company has approximately 16.6 million customers in 14 nations, most of which are in Europe. On the other hand, Unitymedia has approximately 6.4 million RGUs (revenue generating units); including 4.5 million analog and digital basic cable subscribers and 1.9 million new service RGUs (digital TV Pay, retail broadband internet, wholesale MMA internet, and telephony).

Germany is one of the lucrative markets in Europe. In 2002, Liberty Global has failed in its attempt to acquire the cable TV business of Deutsche Telekom AG (DT). Unitymedia has the highest uptake of digital TV and highest RGU per household in Germany. Integration of Unitymedia’s operations with Liberty Global will create a formidable cable TV player in Germany to compete with Kabel Deutschland (the largest cable TV operator in Germany), Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone Plc (VOD).

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Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: JPMorgan Chase, Fifth Third Bancorp, Zions Bancorp, SunTrust Banks and PNC Financial – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:45:23 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 17, 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: JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), Zions Bancorp (ZION), SunTrust Banks (STI) and PNC Financial (PNC).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Bank Failures Rise to 123

The failed banks were -- Century Bank, FSB of Sarasota, Florida with $728 million in assets and $631 million in deposits, Orion Bank of Naples, Florida with about $2.7 billion in assets and $2.1 billion in deposits and Pacific Coast National Bank of San Clemente, California with $134.4 million in assets and $130.9 million in deposits.

These bank failures represent another sizable impact on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) fund for protecting customer accounts, as it has been appointed receiver for these banks. The failure of Century Bank is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund about $344 million, Orion Bank’s failure will cost about $615 million and the failure of Pacific Coast National Bank is expected to cost about $27.4 million.

The FDIC insures deposits at 8,195 institutions with roughly $13.5 trillion in assets. When a bank fails, it reimburses customers for deposits of up to $250,000 per account. The outbreak of bank failures has significantly stretched the regulator’s deposit insurance fund. At Jun 30, 2009, the fund corpus fell to $10.4 billion, the lowest since 1993, from $13.0 billion in the prior quarter.

IberiaBank, based in Lafayette, Louisiana will assume both Florida-based banks' $2.731 billion in deposits. Iberiabank also entered into a loss-share agreement with the FDIC on $656 million of Century Bank's assets and on $1.9 billion of Orion Bank's assets.

Tustin, California-based Sunwest Bank will assume all of Pacific Coast National Bank's deposits and essentially all of its assets.

In the second quarter of 2009, the number of banks on the FDIC's list of problem institutions grew to 416 from 305 in the first quarter. This is the highest since the savings and loan crisis in 1994.   Increasing loan losses on commercial real estate are expected to cause hundreds more bank failures in the next few years. The FDIC anticipates the bank failures to cost about $100 billion over the next four years.

In order to replenish the declining fund, the FDIC board recently mandated the U.S. banks to pay fees for three years in advance. Also, the regulators are considering requesting the healthy banks to bail out the government soon as it is necessary to replenish the deposit insurance fund, which has slipped to 0.22% of insured deposits, below the mandated minimum of 1.15%. The FDIC also has access to the Treasury Department credit line of up to $500 billion.

The failure of Washington Mutual last year was the largest in U.S. banking history. It was acquired by JPMorgan Chase (JPM). The other major acquirers of failed institutions since 2008 include Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), Zions Bancorp (ZION), SunTrust Banks (STI) and PNC Financial (PNC).

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Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Dell Inc., Apple Inc., Nokia, Research In Motion and American Dairy Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:30:51 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 17, 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: Dell Inc. (DELL), Apple Inc. (AAPL), Nokia (NOK), Research In Motion (RIMM) and American Dairy Inc. (ADY).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Dell’s Smartphone Strategy

Dell Inc. (DELL), one of the world’s leading computer manufacturer, has decided to start manufacturing its smartphone device. The company has zeroed in on Brazil as the first manufacturing destination and chosen Claro as its carrier partner in the region. Dell will also be manufacturing the device in China and partner with China Mobile in that region. The phone will be using the Google Android operating system.

Dell’s entry into the smartphone segment looks like a logical progression, as the company is already manufacturing and rolling out reasonably priced netbooks in the market. However, Dell is a late entrant into the market, unlike its peer Apple Inc. (AAPL), which has already grabbed a large share through smartphones such as iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

As per the technology research firm Canalys, third quarter 2009 worldwide smartphone shipments grew 4% year on year, to 41.4 million units. As per the findings of the research firm, Nokia (NOK) maintained its worldwide smartphone leadership position with a 40% share of the market, up from its year-ago position, but down 5% from the previous quarter. Research In Motion (RIMM) was in second place, with a market share of 21%, almost flat sequentially. Apple’s market share was 18% in the third quarter, up from the 14% it held in the second quarter, with significant improvement in the iPhone 3GS supply across many countries. HTC retained the fourth position with a 5% share.

There is no reason to think that Dell phones would not gain popularity considering the company’s history of innovation, although the success rate could vary as competition is intense. We believe that even if Dell is able to capture a small share of the smartphone market, the additional growth opportunity would be substantial.

American Dairy Beats Expectations

American Dairy Inc. (ADY) reported third quarter results before the opening bell today. The company’s net income from continuing operations stood at $11.1 million, or 52 cents per share, from a loss of $22.1 million, or $1.19 per share in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly earnings also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for a profit of 31 cents per share.

American Dairy is a leading producer and distributor of premium infant formula, milk powder, and soybean, rice and walnut products in China. The company, which operates through its wholly owned subsidiary Feihe Dairy and other subsidiaries, has 200 milk collection stations, 2 dairy farms and 6 production facilities. The company has capacity to produce approximately 1,220 tons of milk powder per day and a distribution network of over 90,000 retail outlets across China.

The Beijing-based company recorded an impressive 94.1% year-over-year growth in quarterly sales to $72.1 million. The expansion was primarily driven by strong demand for American Dairy’s milk powder products (mainly infant formula products), which recorded a 151.7% growth in volumes to 6,561 tons and contributed 77.5% to total sales. Moreover, the robust revenue performance was also helped by company’s augmented distribution network and efforts to expand into new geographic areas in China.

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About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Infosys, Myriad Genetics Inc., American International Group, Citigroup, Bank of America – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:55:18 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 16, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Infosys (INFY) as the Bull of the Day and Myriad Genetics Inc. (MYGN) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on American International Group (AIG), Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We are upgrading Infosys (INFY) to an Outperform rating with a target price of $57. Through the ongoing economic downturn, the company has invested in Research & Development as well as intellectual property-based solutions. It continues to focus on large deals targeted at organizational transformation where there is a dearth of vendor talent.

The company continues to win new customers and manages to keep its order book healthy. It is increasing its presence in the emerging markets of Mexico, Brazil, China and India from where an increasing proportion of revenue can be sourced in the coming years.

Finally, its solid balance sheet and cash flow generation provides support to our estimates.

Bear of the Day:

Myriad Genetics Inc. (MYGN) reported first quarter fiscal 2010 earnings of 31 cents per share, which was below the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. The company had earned 25 cents per share in the year-ago period.

Myriad Genetics spun off its therapeutics business in July 2009 to focus on molecular diagnostics going forward. Although the molecular diagnostics business is performing well, we remain concerned about the slowdown in revenue growth in recent quarters.

The competition confronting Myriad Genetics products in the biotechnology and genetics testing field is also a concern. We have an Underperform rating on the stock.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Pay Czar to Allow Competitive Pay

The U.S. Treasury's pay czar, who oversees compensation for the highest-paid employees at the firms that received U.S. taxpayer assistance, said on Thursday that he is concerned that pay cuts could obstruct the ability of these firms to retain and attract top talent. However, the pay czar would be open to requests to hire new executives at competitive industry rates.

The pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, decides compensation packages for the highest-paid employees at the seven firms that have received substantial support from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The pay restrictions were imposed on these firms to enable them to repay government money by controlling excessive pay.

The seven firms, whose top 25 earners received an average 50% lower pay last month by the order of the pay czar, are American International Group (AIG), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), Chrysler Financial, Chrysler Group LLC, General Motors and GMAC Inc.

Though all seven firms that are subject to such scrutiny have expressed concerns about the impact of pay limits, none of them has appealed to the pay czar.

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.

About the Analyst Blog

Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today by visiting http://at.zacks.com/?id=5508.

About Zacks

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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312-265-9380
Visit: www.zacks.com

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp, Quality Systems Inc., Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. and Cerner Corp. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:45:26 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 16, 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: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp (MSFT), Quality Systems Inc. (QSII), Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (MDRX) and Cerner Corp. (CERN).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Apple Opens New Store in New York

Apple Inc. (AAPL) will open its newest retail store with an 8,500 square feet retail space in New York tomorrow. The store will help Apple deliver more Macs, iPods and iPhones, taking advantage of the coming holiday season. The new store is the fourth in Manhattan and fifteenth in New York.

To ensure a high-quality buying experience for its products, in which service and education are emphasized, the company has expanded and improved its distribution capabilities by opening its own retail stores in the U.S. and internationally.

The company operates a network of 280 retail stores in 10 countries across the world, including the U.S., U.K., Italy, Australia, Canada, Japan, China, Switzerland, Germany and France to drive the demand for its other products. Further, Apple is soon to open two new stores in Shanghai as well as London and Paris.

The company further plans to open 40 to 50 new larger retail stores next year, about half of which are expected to be outside the U.S. Apple had earlier estimated that it would open 25 to 50 new stores.

Retail sales increased 4.0% to $6.57 billion (averaging $26.0 million per store annually). Store traffic grew to around 170 million in fiscal 2009. The company has extended its footprint in international retail markets. Growing its presence in the international retail market, Apple opened its first store in Sydney and Beijing and opened stores in Switzerland, France and Germany during the calendar year 2008.

Apple's business strategy leverages its ability, through the design and development of its own operating system, hardware and many software applications and technologies, to provide its customers around the world with compelling new products and solutions, superior ease-of-use, seamless integration and innovative industrial design.

To attract customers during the holiday season, the company plans to offer gift-wrapping of any iPod or portable Mac for just $5. It will also allow customers to set aside a gift and pick it up at their local Apple store for free from Dec. 15 to Christmas Eve.

Apple’s stores hosted 42.7 million visitors during the last quarter, an increase of 7% from the year-ago period. The stores posted revenue of $1.87 billion ($7.6 million per store) in the quarter, the highest level ever and up 15% from the year-ago period.

Last month, Microsoft Corp (MSFT) announced the opening of its own first retail store in Arizona. But we do not expect Microsoft to catch up anytime.

Quality Systems Barely Beats

Quality Systems Inc. (QSII) reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of 41 cents, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny and the year-ago earnings by 4 cents.

Total revenues for the quarter increased 21.5% to $71.69 million from $58.98 million. The company’s NextGen Healthcare Information Systems division posted revenue of $67.4 million for the reported quarter, representing a 23% increase from the previous year.

Category-wise, System sales, including software, hardware and supplies, increased 5.9% to $26.24 million from $24.78 million. Revenues from maintenance, electronic data interchange (EDI), revenue cycle management (RCM) and other services grew 32.9% to $45.46 million from $34.19 million in the year-ago period.

The total cost of system sales, including software, hardware and supplies increased 16.8% to $7 million. Total cost of maintenance, EDI, RCM and other services for the quarter were $21.27 million as against $15.2 million in the year-ago quarter, up 39.9%. Consequently, total cost of revenues for the quarter increased 33.4% to $28.3 million. The company reported a gross profit of $43.4 million for the quarter opposed to $37.8 million in the year-ago period, up 14.8%.

Research & development spend for the quarter increased 30% to $4.34 million for the quarter. Selling, general and administrative expenses for the reported quarter increased 11.7% to $20.4 million.

Quality Systems exited the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $75.4 million opposed to cash and cash equivalents of $70.2 million at the end of fiscal 2009.

Quality Systems, headquartered in Irvine, California, develops and markets healthcare information systems that automate certain aspects of medical and dental practices, networks of practices such as physician hospital organizations and management service organizations, ambulatory care centers, community health centers, and medical and dental schools. The company competes with players like Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (MDRX) and Cerner Corp. (CERN).

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: GlaxoSmithKline plc, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, Baxter International and AstraZeneca – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:15:46 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 16, 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: GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK), Sanofi-Aventis (SNY), Novartis (NVS), Baxter International (BAX) and AstraZeneca (AZN).

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Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Glaxo H1N1 Vaccine Approved

GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) recently received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its unadjuvanted influenza A (H1N1) pandemic vaccine. The FDA approved the supplemental biologics license application (sBLA), which was filed as a strain change supplement to Glaxo’s FluLaval seasonal flu vaccine. This means that Glaxo can now market its swine flu vaccine for use in adults to prevent influenza.

The company has already received an order for 7.6 million doses of its swine flu vaccine from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. This order is a part of the US Government’s intention to secure about 250 million doses to help fight the swine flu pandemic.

The current outbreak of swine flu pandemic can prove to be a big opportunity for vaccine manufacturers. In addition to Glaxo, other major players in this field include Sanofi-Aventis (SNY), Novartis (NVS), Baxter International (BAX) and AstraZeneca (AZN).

In fact, several companies including Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division of Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Limited, the vaccine and diagnostics arm of Novartis, MedImmune LLC, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca and CSL Limited of Australia, have already received approval from the FDA for their swine flu vaccines.

Glaxo intends to start shipping its vaccine in December and expects to provide all the doses by year-end. We expect the company’s vaccine segment to post strong revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009. In addition to strong influenza product sales, the company has made significant progress in expanding its vaccine product portfolio. The approval of cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix in the US and Japan, H1N1 vaccine Pandemrix in Europe, and the H1N1 vaccine in the US should all help drive vaccine segment revenue.

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Nordstrom Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch Co., The Walt Disney Company, Wells Fargo & Company and Bank of America Corporation – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:02:58 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 16, 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: Nordstrom Inc. (JWN), Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF), The Walt Disney Company (DIS), Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) and Bank of America Corporation (BAC).

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Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Nordstrom Ups Guidance, Post-Beat

High-end retailer Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) has reported strong third quarter 2009 results with net income of $83 million or 38 cents per share compared to $71 million or 33 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter. The earnings marginally beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny.

The year-over-year increase in earnings was primarily due to an improvement in same-store sales in each month of the quarter through prudent inventory management policies that focused on sales trends. Quarter-end inventory per square foot declined 10.7% versus the year-ago period. Overall gross profit of the company (as a percentage of sales) increased approximately 90 bps during the quarter compared to the year-earlier quarter.

By segment, same-store sales decreased 4.2% during the quarter in Full-line stores, increased 16.4% in Nordstrom Direct and 3.0% in Nordstrom Rack. During the quarter, the company reported a $10 million increase in retail selling, general and administrative expenses due to an increase in operating costs related to the opening of new stores, along with an increase in variable expenses.

Abercrombie & Fitch Earnings Dip

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF), a leading international specialty retailer, reported relatively weak third quarter 2009 results with a net income of $38.8 million or 44 cents per share, compared to a net income of $63.9 million or 72 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter.

The year-over-year decline in results was primarily due to the continued economic downturn plaguing the industry that has resulted in reduced consumer discretionary income and cuts in non-essential spending.

Overall net sales of the company during the quarter decreased 15% to $765.4 million from $896.3 million in the year-ago quarter. Total company direct-to-consumer net sales increased 11% year-over-year to $63.9 million, while overall comparable-store sales decreased 22%.

Disney’s Revenue Climbs

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) recently reported fourth-quarter 2009 results, posting mid-single digit growth in both top and bottom lines. Total revenue for the quarter climbed 4% year-on-year to $9,867 million.

The quarterly earnings of 46 cents a share outdid the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 41 cents and jumped 5% from 44 cents delivered in the prior-year quarter. The better-than-expected results followed strong results from its Media Networks segment and effective cost management.

On a reported basis, including one-time items, quarterly earnings came in at 47 cents a share, up 18% from 40 cents posted in the year-ago quarter.

New Rules for Bank Overdraft Fees

According to the new regulations, consumers must be given a notice explaining a financial institution's overdraft services, including an explanation of the fees associated with the services.

The Federal Reserve took this decision primarily based on its investigation which showed that banking customers only want overdraft services if they know the details of what is required. However, some consumers do want overdraft protection services to make sure that some time-sensitive payments like rent and bills are covered, as long as they know the charges.

The Fed's rules appear mostly in line with the new trend that some of the banks have already begun moving toward. In September, Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) said that it will not charge fees from customers if they overdraw their accounts by $5 or less. Following that, in October, Bank of America Corporation (BAC) announced that it will eliminate fees if a customer’s account is overdrawn by less than $10 in a single day.

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Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: JC Penney Company Inc., Toyota, Honda, EnCana and Chesapeake – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:45:50 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 16, 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: JC Penney Company Inc. (JCP), Toyota (TM), Honda (HMC), EnCana (ECA) and Chesapeake (CHK).

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Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

JC Penney Beats on Low Earnings

JC Penney Company Inc. (JCP), a leading retailer of apparel and footwear, accessories, fashion jewelry, beauty products and home furnishings, recently reported third-quarter 2009 results.

The quarterly earnings of 11 cents a share tumbled 80% from 55 cents posted in the prior-year quarter, weighed down by qualified pension plan expense. Earnings missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny.

The retailer, however, mentioned that earnings outshined the company’s initial guidance range of a loss of 5 cents to profit of 5 cents a share on the heels of effective inventory management and lowered unprofitable discounting. Consequently, gross profit rose 1.9% year-on-year to $1,696 million.

On stronger-than-expected results, JC Penney raised its fiscal year 2009 earnings outlook. Management now expects earnings in the range of 93 cents to $1.08 per share, as against 75 cents to 90 cents previously anticipated. For the fourth-quarter 2009, earnings are expected between 70 cents and 85 cents a share.

Imports Surge in September

So what was driving the increase in the deficit? Part of it was that we imported more cars from the Toyotas (TM) and Hondas (HMC) of the world as dealers restocked after inventories were depleted due to Cash for Clunkers. However, for the month, the biggest increase in our imports was Industrial Supplies and Materials -- a category that includes oil. Oil is a big part of the reason why our trade deficit has been so intractable, and the decline in the price of oil from a year ago is a big part of the reason that we have seen an improvement in the deficit over the last year.

We started making progress on reducing our non-oil deficit towards the end of 2005, and until the last few months, have continued to make steady progress. However, as the price of oil rose, that progress was offset by an ever increasing oil bill.

The net result was that from mid-2005 through the summer of 2008, our trade deficit remained stable at a horrendous level of roughly $60 billion a month. As a percentage of GDP, it exceeded 5.0% in every quarter from the second quarter of 2004 through the second quarter of 2008, and was extremely close to that level through the third quarter of 2008. It was not until oil prices collapsed in the fall of 2008 (along with everything else) that we saw a dramatic improvement in the trade deficit. Now with oil prices on the rebound, the deficit is deteriorating rapidly again.

There are really only two solutions to solving the chronic deficit problem. The first is that the dollar falls, thus making imports more expensive to U.S. consumers and businesses, and our exports much cheaper to foreign consumers and businesses. Yes, a weak dollar would not be fun next time you decide to vacation in Paris. It also would have the potential to be inflationary. However, right now, there are big deflationary pressures elsewhere in the economy (for example, housing prices and rents), so a little bit of inflation pressure coming from higher import prices is not a huge worry.

Creating export-led jobs is much more important right now. That would help increase Investment’s share of the economy, and decrease the Consumer’s share. Over time it is vitally important that we do this.

One big problem, though, as far as the weak dollar is concerned in curing this cancer -- it is not weak against every other currency. Most importantly, it has been absolutely stable against the Yuan, and our deficit with China was $22.1 billion in September, up from $20.1 billion in August.

As a percentage of the total, then, it was 60.5% in September -- down from 65.6% in August, but still a huge part of the problem. It is also an issue that a weak dollar does not address (unless China stops pegging to the dollar and moves to say pegging it to a basket of major currencies, I doubt they will go to a full free-float of the Yuan).

The second solution is that we get serious about creating domestic sources of energy to offset the need for us to import so much oil. Since we have already extracted most of our original endowment of oil, "drill baby drill" is looking less and less like the right answer.

However, we have lots and lots of natural gas (NG), thanks to the new Shale plays. Our ability to switch from oil to gas immediately is limited. Butiven the cost differential on a BTU basis right now, there is every incentive in the world already for businesses to make the switch if they can. Strictly on the basis of the amount of energy in them, a barrel of oil should be worth 6x as much as an MCF of natural gas.

Right now, oil is going for $75.86 a barrel while NG is going for $4.42, so if a business has the ability, they could be buying the equivalent of a barrel of oil for just $26.52. That is a big incentive to switch. Over the medium-to-long term, it is easier to make that change. Only relatively minor modifications are needed to switch, say, vehicles to natural gas -- it's not like it is some sort of cutting-edge technology.

However, it is not free, and we do not have the nationwide refilling infrastructure to do so. If this differential persists, I would expect more and more fleet-type vehicles (i.e. city buses and delivery trucks) to switch over. This would obviously be a good thing for the big producers of natural gas like EnCana (ECA) and Chesapeake (CHK).

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Boeing Delivers First Freighter – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:10:13 +0000

The Boeing Company (BA) towed the first 747-8 Freighter model out of its factory in Everett. The long-awaited freighter is now being put up for test flights.

The 747-8 Freighter is the new high-capacity 747 that will give cargo operators the lowest operating costs and best economics of any freighter airplane while providing enhanced environmental performance. It is 250 feet, 2 inches (76.3 m) long, which is 18 feet and 4 inches (5.6 m) longer than the 747-400 series Freighter. The stretch provides customers with 16% more revenue cargo volume compared to its predecessor. That translates to four additional main-deck pallets and three additional lower-hold pallets.

Boeing to date has secured 105 orders for the 747-8 series aircrafts, 78 of which are orders for the freighter variant. The rest orders are for the passenger variant. The 747-8 Freighter series will boost the commercial aircraft segment of Boeing. In the recently reported third quarter of fiscal 2009, the company booked 96 gross orders. The company finished the quarter with segmental backlog of $254 billion.

Headquartered in Chicago, Boeing is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jet liners and military aerospace products (based on total sales). Boeing designs and produces commercial airplanes, defense systems, and civil and defense space systems. It is also the largest NASA contractor. Non-airplane products include helicopters, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites, rocket engines, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems. We maintain our market Neutral recommendation on the shares.
Read the full analyst report on "BA"
Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Releases Four Powerful ”Buy” Stocks: Priceline.com Inc., Polaris Industries Inc., Herbalife Ltd. and Healthspring, Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:13:36 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 13, 2009 – Four free stock picks are being made available today on Zacks.com. The industry’s leading independent research firm highlights one Zacks #1 Rank Strong Buy or a Zacks #2 Rank Buy stock for each of the four main styles of investing: Aggressive Growth, Growth & Income, Momentum, and Value.

The four highlighted picks are: Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN), Polaris Industries Inc. (PII), Herbalife Ltd. (HLF) and Healthspring, Inc. (HS).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Four daily picks are offered free at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

Here is a summary of today's selected stocks that are now highly rated by Zacks:

Aggressive Growth – Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN)
Priceline.com Inc. recently reported third quarter results that beat big for the fourth consecutive quarter. Analysts expect earnings growth of 35.34% in 2009.

Zacks Guide to Aggressive Growth Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4309

Growth & Income – Polaris Industries Inc. (PII)
Polaris Industries Inc. recently declared a quarterly dividend of 39 cents per share, which translates into an industry-leading yield of 3.4%. In mid-October, the company announced third-quarter earnings of 94 cents per share, which was below the previous year’s $1.13 but 12% ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Zacks Guide to Growth & Income Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4310

Momentum – Herbalife Ltd. (HLF)
Herbalife Ltd. recently spike higher after reporting better than expected third-quarter results.

Zacks Guide to Momentum Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4311

Value – Healthspring, Inc. (HS)
Healthspring, Inc. has surprised on estimates 3 out of the last 4 quarters by an average of 6.45%. The stock is cheap. It trades at just 6.7x forward earnings and has a PEG ratio of 0.67.

Zacks Guide to Value Investing (free!): http://at.zacks.com/?id=4312

Today, Zacks is promoting its stock recommendations by offering four daily picks free to those who register at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

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Aggressive Growth Stocks:
Contact: Bill Wilton
Phone: 312-265-9277

Growth & Income Stocks:
Contact: Alex Kolb
Phone: 312-265-9149

Momentum Stocks:
Contact: Michael Vodicka
Phone: 312-265-9226

Value Stocks:
Contact: Tracey Ryniec
Phone: 312-265-9232

Email: pr@zacks.com
Visit: www.zacks.com

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Expedia Inc., Triumph Group, Inc., Target, TJ Maxx/Marshall’s and Abercrombie & Fitch – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:00:41 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 13, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Expedia Inc. (EXPE) as the Bull of the Day and Triumph Group, Inc. (TGI) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Target (TGT), TJ Maxx/Marshall’s (TJX) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Expedia Inc. (EXPE) is one of the leading online travel companies in the world. The company reported strong results in the last quarter, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Promotional activity continues to have a positive impact on the conversion rate, and spending is expected to strengthen in the next few quarters.

We are also positive about international initiatives, which we think will be the key to future growth. Cost management, a favorable online advertising environment and solid financials are other encouraging factors.

By comparison, the possibility of increased occupancy taxes and low growth in Egencia (the smallest segment) seem less significant. However, the declining average daily rates could be something to watch. We are reiterating our Outperform rating on EXPE shares.

Bear of the Day:

We maintain our Underperform rating on Triumph Group, Inc. (TGI) based on the belief that there will be no significant recovery in the delivery of new commercial aircraft in the medium term. A weak commercial OEM market is likely to continue for the coming months.

Huge dependence on government spending as well as on Boeing, its largest customer, is also discouraging. Intense competition in the aerospace is likely to have an adverse impact on the company.

The company's strategy to grow through acquisition involves risks that could adversely affect the operating results, including difficulties in integrating its recently acquired business.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Initial Jobless Claims Fall Again

With the average duration of unemployment at 26.9 weeks, and the median at 18.7 weeks (both all-time records by a very long shot versus other recessions) regular continuing claims is clearly a flawed measure. After regular claims run out, people are then covered under emergency extended claims, paid by the Federal government as part of the stimulus package. Those, too, were in danger of running out for many until they were finally extended earlier this week.

There are now 4.043 million people in the two major extended benefit programs, a decline of just over 5,000 this week (actually two weeks ago, the extended numbers are reported with a delay). That decline is just as likely from people simply running out of their extended benefits as from them getting new jobs. The data should be interesting to look at in a few weeks to see if the numbers shoot back up as the new extension kicks in.

I am encouraged by the steady decline in the initial jobs numbers. They show that we are getting closer to the day when businesses finally, on balance, start to hire people again. That will provide people with the income and confidence in the future that we need to get the economy humming again. It would be the start of a virtuous cycle, as that extra income feeds back into the econo0my creating yet more jobs, and more income.

Right now, we are more likely in "no man's land," where the back of the vicious cycle has been broken, but a virtuous one has not yet taken its place. The hope of this happening could help out the retailers just in time for Christmas. However, I would bet that the discounters like Target (TGT) and TJ Maxx/Marshall’s (TJX) do better than the higher end stores like Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) this year.

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.

About the Analyst Blog

Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today by visiting http://at.zacks.com/?id=5508.

About Zacks

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights: ArcelorMittal, Steel Dynamics Inc., AK Steel Holding Corporation, United States Steel Corporation and Nucor Corporation – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:55:47 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 13, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the latest Industry Outlook. Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Steel Industry, including ArcelorMittal (MT), Steel Dynamics Inc. (STLD), AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS), United States Steel Corporation (X) and Nucor Corporation (NUE).

A synopsis of today’s Industry Outlook is presented below. The full article can be read at http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/27253/Steel+Industry.

ArcelorMittal (MT) is the world’s largest steel company with steel production of 103.3 million tons in 2008. Other major players in the industry are Steel Dynamics Inc. (STLD), AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS), United States Steel Corporation (X) and Nucor Corporation (NUE).

The Asia-Pacific region, especially China and India, is witnessing higher production and consumption of steel. This is due to the per capita consumption reaching up to U.S./European levels, which could, theoretically at least, double steel demand in the longer-term. China has set up the largest steel industries in the world, driven by increasing demand for rapid urbanization and large infrastructure projects. The country accounted for nearly 50% of monthly total world production in August 2009.

China’s share is larger than the combined production of the U.S., the European Union (EU), Russia and Japan, which have historically been the largest producers of steel. In 2001, China's annual share of world production stood at 17%, while the EU accounted for the largest share at 18%. In eight years, China's share of world production has almost tripled, while other producers have seen their shares decrease. Ranked behind China are Japan and the U.S.

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Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Stryker Corp., Synergetics USA, Inc., Zimmer Holdings, Conmed Corporation and Smith & Nephew – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:50:57 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 13, 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: Stryker Corp. (SYK), Synergetics USA, Inc. (SURG), Zimmer Holdings (ZMH), Conmed Corporation (CNMD) and Smith & Nephew (SNN).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Stryker Strikes Acquisition Deals

Stryker Corp. (SYK) is on a takeover spree having made three acquisitions recently. The company acquired OtisMed Corp., Mutoh Co. Ltd. and certain of its affiliates, and Synergetics USA, Inc. (SURG). Financial terms of these transactions include $67 million in upfront payment as well as potential future milestone and royalty payments of up to $36 million. These acquisitions are expected to be completed by the end of 2009.

OtisMed Corp. is a privately held software technology firm that focuses on customizable instrumentation complementing Stryker’s Triathlon Knee System, as well as other Stryker implants. Stryker will incorporate OtisMed as part of its Orthopaedics division.

Mutoh Co. Ltd. is a Japanese company and a leading provider of equipment, products, instruments and services to the medical and scientific communities. On the other hand, Synergetics USA, Inc. is a leading supplier of precision microsurgery instrumentation.

Mutoh and Synergetics acquisitions give Stryker access to different assets used to produce Sonopet Ultrasonic Aspirator control consoles, hand pieces and accessories as well as the rights to market and sell these products globally. Post the completion of the acquisition, Stryker will incorporate these two companies into its Instruments division.

The acquisitions widen Stryker’s product portfolio and will boost its top-line. Stryker is one of the world’s largest medical device companies operating in the global orthopedic market. In the orthopedic space, Stryker faces competition from major players like Zimmer Holdings (ZMH), Conmed Corporation (CNMD) and Smith & Nephew (SNN).

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