Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. (WINN) reported fiscal fourth-quarter results earlier this week. The company swung to a net profit of $9.4 million from a net loss of $5.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Earnings per share came in at 17 cents, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. Winn-Dixie is one of the leading food retailers in the U.S. and currently operates 515 grocery locations, including more than 400 in-store pharmacies, across Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi. The Jacksonville, FL-based company’s sales posted a slight growth of 1.4% year over year to $1.72 billion. This was driven by a 1.6% rise in identical-store sales, mainly due to a favorable shift in the timing of Easter holidays, partially offset by higher sales of generic drugs compared to branded ones. The company, which emerged from bankruptcy protection in November 2006, is remodeling its stores in the ...

CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS) reported strong second-quarter results with earnings of $0.65 per share, a penny above the Zacks Consensus Estimate and up 8.3% year over year.

Net revenue increased 17.6% year over year to $24.9 billion. Same-store sales grew 6.1% as pharmacy same-store sales rose 7.5% (negatively impacted by 478 basis points due to recent generic introductions), and front-end (general merchandise) same-store sales increased 3.0%.

Revenue in the Pharmacy Services segment grew 22.1% to $13.0 billion and retail pharmacy revenue climbed 17.2% to 13.8 billion. The top line also benefited from the conversion of RxAmerica accounting pattern, a shift in Easter holiday and a positive impact of 85 basis points as product cost rose due to a hike in federal cigarette excise tax.

Net interest expense in the quarter increased 11.5% to $142.1 million, primarily due to the higher debt attributable to the Longs Drug acquisition. The

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 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: WESCO International (WCC), Anixter International (AXE), W.W. Grainger (GWW), United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) and Hershey (HSY).

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:

WESCO Misses, Guidance Down

WESCO International (WCC) announced second-quarter results that missed the consensus revenue estimate by 15.5% and the EPS estimate by 12 cents. Results appear weaker than the peer group, which includes Anixter International (AXE), W.W. Grainger (GWW) and

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The reduction in Mexico's central bank interest rate from 7.75% to 7.5% has forced down borrowing costs on floating-rate securities. Thus, Telefonos de Mexico (TMX or Telmex), Mexico's leading fixed-lined phone operator, plans to sell MXN$8 billion (US$598 million) floating-rate bonds to refinance its debt and meet general corporate purpose.

Telmex Internacional SAB (TII), spun off in June 2008 from Telmex, is expected to sell approx MXN$5 billion ($375 million) in bonds, which will fetch MXN$10 billion for the company. This will help it to expand its presence with broadband and local services and also to introduce value-added services for the corporate market, and Internet and voice services and triple-play services in the residential market for a total investment of US$1.1 billion in 2009.

We expect a fall in Telmex's revenues, EBITDA, and net profit during the second quarter of 2009, with the recent outbreak of swine flu

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div style="text-align: justify;"Merrill Lynch/BAM is upgrading span style="font-weight: bold;"AirTran (NYSE:AAI)/span to Buy from Underperform while raising their price tgt to $9 from $4.br /br /According to the firm, the upgrade is due to an improved earnings outlook based on better-than-expected sales trends, especially in the ancillary area, that they believe will build as the year progresses and into 2010. In that regard, the firm is raising their 2009 diluted EPS estimate from $0.40 to $0.80 (vs. consensus of $1.06) and 2010 diluted EPS estimate from $0.50 to $0.95 (vs. consensus of $1.00). span style="font-weight: bold;"Furthermore, the 30% pullback in AAI’s share price since peaking a month ago represent what they think is an attractiveentry-point for investors to purchase this high quality, profitable, low cost carrier./spanbr /br /Well-run, well-capitalized, low cost airlines, such as AirTran, typically outperform the sector in challenging economic environments such as the present. Furthermore, because AirTran is ...

div style="text-align: justify;"JP Morgan is out with a major call on span style="font-weight: bold;"Office Depot (NYSE:ODP)/span upgrading the shares to Overweight from Neutral while raising their price tgt to a whopping $8 (prev. $5).br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Firm notes they are upgrading ODP to Overweight for the following reasons: /span1) a modest normalization of the economic environment over the next year combined with ODP’s high macro correlation and apparent liquidity over that timeframe; 2) the potential for upward cash flow/earnings revisions against negative Street sentiment; 3) significant multiple expansion to reach peak valuation on trough earnings; and 4) the dissipation of the liquidity governor on the stock.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"All in, they see a 3-1 risk-reward scenario./span Firm's Dec 2009 price target of $8 is based on 8x EV/EBITDA using 2010 forecasts, 0.4x price to sales, and discounted normalized earnings of $1 in 2012.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Not for ...

German exports and investment spending plunged in the first quarter, dragging Europe’s largest economy into its deepest economic slump on record. Exports were down 9.7 percent from the fourth quarter and company investment declined 7.9 percent, according to the Federal Statistics Office. The Office reported that gross domestic product fell a seasonally adjusted 3.8 percent from the previous three months, confirming an initial estimate from May 15. That’s the largest drop since quarterly data were first compiled in 1970. From October to December 2008, the German economy had already contracted by 2.2%, and by 0.5% in each of the the second and third quarters. According to the statistics office, the ...

Given today’s economic conditions, closer to home entertainment seems to be a logical investment opportunity. In most respects, this is a solid concept that could pay off. However, it may prove a bit less so as overall spending is reduced. Variability is the unknown, but in either case consumers will spend closer to home at a reasonable cost. An investor that can find that closer to home entertainment option is one that will profit.

Six Flags Inc., a regional amusement park operator, owns and operates 20 amusement parks in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The company currently has plans for international expansion to Dubai and Qatar.

One must understand that the amusement park business has a certain amount of seasonality. One quarter here or there does not generally distinguish an overall financial year. Six Flag’s Inc. is no different in this respect. The Easter holiday is an indicator of only 5% of

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by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /br /According to preliminary estimates from the Spanish National Statistics Office published today, GDP contracted by 1.8% in the first three months of 2009 when compared with the last quarter on 2008. This follows a 1.0% drop in Q4 2008. This is equivalent to a 7.2% annualised rate of contraction, which is, of course, sharp.br /br /a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SgwM_W4NxhI/AAAAAAAAN5c/P1h2RPTzmDY/s1600-h/spain+gdp+one.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335653941139850770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 209px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SgwM_W4NxhI/AAAAAAAAN5c/P1h2RPTzmDY/s400/spain+gdp+one.png" border="0" //abr /br /Over the first quarter of 2008 (that is year on year) GDP decreased by 2.9%, the sharpest decline recorded in almost 40 years. In fact you would need to go back to 1945 to find a year in which the Spanish economy contracted as strongly as it is likely to this year.br /br /The contraction was mainly caused by a very large slump in private ...

The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX) posted April sales of $1.43 billion, up 1% on a year-over-year basis. Consolidated comparable store sales increased by 3%. The company upped its earnings guidance on strong sales, calling for a first-quarter earnings range of 47 to 49 cents per share. Analysts responded by boosting the average earnings projection from 39 cents to 49 cents in just 1 week.

< ?DART(15);?> Company Description

The TJX Companies is a discount retailers, selling apparel and home fashions worldwide. The Company operates 882 T.J. Maxx, 809 Marshalls, 322 HomeGoods, and 140 A.J. Wright stores in the United States. In Canada, the Company operates 203 Winners, 75 HomeSense and 3 STYLESENSE stores, and in Europe, 238 T.K. Maxx and 8 HomeSense stores.

Robust Sales

The company posted April sales of $1.43 billion, up 1% on a year-over-year basis. Consolidated comparable store sales increased by 3%.

President and

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