Today we are featuring top-performing “Health" equity mutual funds , which primarily invest in equity securities of healthcare and related companies.

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

3 Healthy Picks

Eaton Vance Worldwide Health Sciences A (ETHSX) long-term capital growth by investing in a global and diversified portfolio of health sciences companies. It was incepted in July 1985.

The fund pursues its objective by investing in worldwide health sciences portfolio. The fund invests primarily in common stocks of companies engaged in the development, production or distribution of products related to scientific advances in health care and companies with a broad range of market capitalization's, including small companies.

The fund has an expense ratio of 2.06% and a portfolio turnover of 48% as May 2009. The fund offers dividends and capital gains annually.

Samuel D. Isaly has been lead manager of the fund since

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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

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 11, 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.

Earnings Season in Home Stretch

For a large sector, the revisions ratio of 9.07 for the Industrials is extremely impressive, and would seem to support the idea that the economy is gaining some real traction. More than five times as many firms in the sector saw their mean estimate for 2010 rise over the last month than suffered a decline in their expectations.

Some of the firms in the sector that have seen double-digit increases in both their mean estimate and double-digit numbers of estimate increases and have had no cuts over the last month include Caterpillar (CAT), Eaton (

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Key Points: •    Earnings Surprise Ratio (#beat/#miss) at 5.47, almost double normal •    Median Earnings Surprise  7.11%, very strong •    Year over year Earnings Growth Ratio (# Pos Growth/# Neg Growth) at 0.77 •    Sales Surprise Ratio at 1.37 •    Sales Growth Ratio at just 0.40 •    Total Net Income for S&P 500 reported so far is 11.6% below what those same 444 firms reported a year ago, 11.8% above what they earned in the 2Q09 •    Total S&P 500 Revenues reported so far down 13.4% year over year, up 2.0% from 2Q09 •    2009 Earnings Revisions ratio for full S&P 500 up to 3.05, up from 2.48 last week •    2010 ratio at 2.14, down slightly from 2.17 last week •    S&P500 expected to earn $570.6 billion in 2008, $706.8 billion in 2010 •    Bottom Up estimates:  $61.62 for 2009, $76.70 for 2010 •    Top Down estimates: $54.38 ...

Last week, Walgreen (WAG) decided to acquire the assets of 12 Eaton Apothecary pharmacies in the Boston area from D.A.W., Inc., a subsidiary of Nyer Medical Group Inc. (NYER) for approximately $19 million. The acquisition, subject to certain terms and conditions, is expected to close within the next 90 days. Following the transaction, Nyer would liquidate. We believe the acquisition will boost the company’s revenues going forward.

Walgreen’s strong balance sheet has enabled it to grow its business through acquisitions even in the midst of recession. The company generated $852 million in the fourth quarter and $4.1 billion for the year in cash flow from operations, an increase of 55% and 35%, respectively driven by strong drugstore performance, including improved working capital. At the end of the last quarter, Walgreen had $2.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents. We had expected earlier that the company would use the available

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Saturday October 24, 2009

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NYER, Nyer Medical Group, Inc.

NYER is a holding company that, through its pharmacy subsidiary, operates pharmacies and provides pharmacy management services to various not-for-profit entities in the greater Boston area.

NYER and its subsidiary D.A.W., Inc. (which does business under the name Eaton Apothecary) entered into a definitive agreement with Walgreen Eastern Co., Inc. for the sale of a substantial portion of DAW’s operating assets, including prescription files and inventory of a total of 12 neighborhood pharmacies which includes the assignment of eight leases, for a purchase price, subject to certain

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• Eaton (NYSE:ETN) reported third quarter earnings were benefitted by "improved production and lower costs."  The company reports third-quarter EPS of $1.21 ex-items versus $1.95 a year earlier, and well above Zacks projections of $0.91 as revenues fell 26% to $3.03 billion. The company set full year operating projections at $2.40-$2.50

• Hasbro (NYSE:HAS) reported third quarter earnings of 99 cents, versus Zacks estimates of 92 cents a share, although revenues of $1.28 billion were below Zacks projections of $1.34 billion

• BB&T (NYSE:BBT) reported third quarter fully diluted results of 23 cents versus 65 cents a year earlier, inline with Zacks estimates of 23 cents. According CEO King, "Our revenue growth for the quarter was very strong at 16.1%, the net interest margin is improved, growth in noninterest-bearing deposits is exceptional and the impact from the Colonial acquisition is positive. However, our earnings continue to be negatively affected by a significant

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 19, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Cytori Therapeutics (CYTX) as the Bull of the Day and Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. (RRGB) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Ford (F), Eaton (ETN) and TRW Automotive (TRW).

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

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We continue to be very positive on Cytori Therapeutics (CYTX) and believe the company's Celution System, a better mousetrap for quickly and efficiently harvesting adult stem cells, will see sales ramp significantly over the next few years.

Sales of the system have been tracking with our expectations. Ultimately, the clinical data will determine the pace at which the ramp continues. So far, the clinical data has been exciting,

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In September, total Industrial Production rose by 0.7% from August -- its third straight monthly increase after a string where it was down 17 of 18 months. Total Capacity Utilization also climbed to 70.5%, up from an upwardly revised 69.9% (originally 69.6%) in August. While both are still at extremely low levels, the three straight months of improvement is a VERY good sign. Turning first the the Industrial Production numbers, the increase in total production was 0.7%, which is a distinct slowdown from the 1.2% gain in August, and from the 0.9% gain in July. However, the August number was revised up sharply from 0.8% growth originally reported (July was revised down from up 1.0%). Thus the gain was coming against a higher base than was thought, and things were better in August than we thought. Still, from a longer term perspective it is not all that good -- year-over-year total Industrial Production is down ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 2, 2009 – Three mutual funds rose to the highest level of a new ranking system and are being highlighted today on Zacks.com.

These free "Strong Buy" picks are being made available to promote the new Mutual Fund Rank of the investment world's leading independent research firm.

Highlighted Today: Health Equity Funds   

Fidelity Select Medical Equipment & Systems (FSMEX) seeks capital appreciation. The fund is non-diversified.  It may invest in securities of foreign issuers or a significant percentage of assets in a single issuer. Its key holdings include Medtronic Inc. (MDT), Baxter International Inc. (BAX) and Boston Scientific Inc. (BSX). Evergreen Health Care A (EHABX) was incepted in December 1999. The investment seeks long-term capital growth. The fund normally invests at least 80% of its assets in equity securities of healthcare companies. Robert C. Junkin has been lead manager at the

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