Dover Corp. (DOV), a diversified manufacturer of industrial products, announced that Hill PHOENIX, its operating company has acquired Barker Co. Ltd. and its sister company, Barker Sales and Service, Inc. (the Barker Co.). The Barker Co. specializes in manufacturing refrigerated, non-refrigerated and hot display cases. However, financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.   The acquisition is expected to be a strategic fit as it puts Hill PHOENIX in a better position to serve customers in its Specialty Products division. In addition, Barker Company's innovative design capabilities and broad specialty product line coupled with the impressive technology and product engineering in combination with the performance of Hill PHOENIX represents a real opportunity for Hill PHOENIX to expand its presence in the rapidly-growing specialty merchandiser segment.   In the past three years Dover has been focusing on growth through strategic acquisitions. During the second quarter, the company acquired ...

Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

Advisory Board Co (ABCO) Bell Microproducts Inc (BELM) Beneficial Mutual Bancorp Inc (BNCL) Briggs & Stratton Corp (BGG) Commerce Bancshares Inc (CBSH) Conceptus Inc (CPTS) Crane Co (CR) Dolan Media Co (DM) Dorman Products Inc (DORM) Dover Corp (DOV) Dow Chemical Co (DOW) Drew Industries Inc (DW) E-House China Holdings Ltd (EJ) ev3 Inc (EVVV) GAMCO Investors Inc (GBL) ICT Group Inc (ICTG) Integrated Silicon Solution Inc (...

Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

3M Co (MMM) AMCOL International Corp (ACO) Archer-Daniels-Midland Co (ADM) Arena Resources Inc (ARD) Bell Microproducts Inc (BELM) Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc (BIO) BNP Paribas (BNPQY) Boston Beer Co Inc (SAM) Conmed Corp (CNMD) Crosstex Energy Inc (XTXI) Deutsche Bank AG (DB) Dover Corp (DOV) Dow Chemical Co (DOW) Eaton Corp (ETN) FBL Financial Group Inc (FFG) Fuel Systems Solutions Inc (FSYS) Genoptix Inc (GXDX) ...

Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

AES Corp (AES) Akzo Nobel NV (AKZOY) Alliance Financial Corp (ALNC) Atlantic Tele-Network Inc (ATNI) BASF SE (BASFY) Biovail Corp (BVF) Carbo Ceramics Inc (CRR) Cato Corp (CATO) Cellcom Israel Ltd (CEL) Chunghwa Telecom Co Ltd (CHT) Covidien Plc (COV) DG FastChannel Inc (DGIT) Diodes Inc (DIOD) Dover Corp (DOV) E.ON AG (EONGY) Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd (ENH) Gap Inc (GPS) Investors Bancorp Inc ...

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

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

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

If you have these stocks in your portfolio,

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

Albemarle Corp (ALB) AptarGroup Inc (ATR) Arch Coal Inc (ACI) Cape Bancorp Inc (CBNJ) Care Investment Trust Inc (CRE) Century Casinos Inc (CNTY) Ceradyne Inc (CRDN) China Sunergy Co Ltd (CSUN) CoBiz Financial Inc (COBZ) Coleman Cable Inc (CCIX) Community Bancorp (CBON) Compass Minerals International Inc (CMP) Courier Corp (CRRC) CryptoLogic Ltd (CRYP) Dover Corp (DOV) El Paso Electric Co (EE) Flamel Technologies SA (FLML) HLTH Corp (HLTH) Huntsman Corp (HUN) International Game Technology (IGT) INX Inc (INXI) Mercer International Inc (MERC) Mettler-Toledo International Inc (MTD) Natural Resource Partners LP (NRP) Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc (PRAA) Prospect Capital Corp (PSEC) Rockwood Holdings Inc (ROC) STAAR Surgical Co (...

Dover Corp. (DOV) climbed almost 5% today on unusually low volume of 1.5 million, against the daily average of 2.6 million.

The company sees current-year earnings of $2 to $2.30 per share, down from its January view of $2.75 to $3.05. The 2009 average forecast has dropped to $2.04 from last month's $2.62, as 6 out of 7 covering analysts cut back on expectations.

The consensus for next year has fallen to $2.33 from $2.59 per share over the same period, reflecting downward revisions by 4 of the 7 covering analysts.

Dover, a Zacks #4 Rank ("Sell"), reported earnings of 45 cents per share in its last quarter, which missed estimates by 8.2%. Revenue for the quarter declined 26% to $1.4 billion.

"DOV" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?Zacks Investment Research

In theory, equity income investing creates a reasonably steady and growing income stream from stock investments — a good chance of maintaining real purchasing power of the stream.  That contrasts with bonds which create a more reliable, but constant income stream that has no chance of maintaining real purchasing power (inflation protected Treasuries and perhaps some variable rate bonds excepted).

In practice lately, however, the equity income theory isn’t working so well. Dividends are being cut at an historic rate, particularly among banks, but to some degree in other industries as well.

Dividend investing isn’t for everybody, but it is attractive and important to some, particularly those who rely on their portfolios to generate cash flow to support their lifestyle.

S&P Dividend Aristocrats:

Standard and Poor’s may even have to reduce the performance requirements for its Dividend Aristocrats (proxy SDY) to keep the index going.  Because the index rules require at least 40 issues,

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