Keith Fitz-Gerald (Money Morning): With all the financial woes in the global economy, the worst thing an investor can do is to “freeze up.” With all the ups and downs in the market, it’s all too easy for investors to allow their emotions to take control. That’s when the smallest mistakes turn into the biggest mistakes.

There’s one antidote for this problem … remembering a few basic rules. Just embrace the 10 ideas that follow and you’ll be in line to make some serious money in the months ahead.

Rule Number 1: Invest on the Right Side of Major Economic Trends:That old investing adage “Don’t fight the Fed” serves as a good example here. Rising interest-rate environments make meaningful gains difficult to sustain – unless you know what to look for. Far too many investors got it wrong in the 2000-2003 and 2008-2009 periods by betting on growth stocks

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Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFMI), the natural and organic grocer, recently reported its fourth quarter results. Earnings of 19 cents a share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny, surging 18.8% from 16 cents posted in the prior-year quarter. On a reported basis, including unusual items, earnings came in at 20 cents a share, far ahead of 1 cent delivered in the year-ago quarter.   The stringent cost-control measures, effective inventory management, improved store-level performance and increase in lower-priced brands drove earnings growth. Whole Foods sees earnings of $1.05 to $1.10 per share for fiscal year 2010, just below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.11.


Whole Foods sustained its growth momentum in the top line for the second consecutive quarter. After rising 2% year on year in the third-quarter, revenues climbed 2.3% to $1,829.2 million in the fourth quarter, showing signs of revival. Earlier, the company saw a 0.4%

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Safeway Inc. (SWY) reported third quarter earnings of 31 cents per share, slightly above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 30 cents per share. However, quarterly earnings were down 33% from prior-year earnings of 46 cents per share. Safeway’s sales fell 7.0% year over year to $9.5 billion in the third quarter of 2009. The company attributed this decline to lower fuel sales (which was primarily due to lower fuel prices), a 3.0% decline in identical-store sales (excluding fuel), and a weak Canadian exchange rate. Sales remained soft due to deflation in dairy, produce and meat, besides a weak economy. Gross margin of 28.27% for the quarter was 78 basis points higher than the previous year. The company said that the gross margin declined 6 basis points excluding the impact of fuel sales. Operating margin declined to 2.9% from the year ago level of 3.8% due to ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 27, 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: Safeway Inc. (SWY), Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), Gap Inc. (GPS), Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO).

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:

Safeway Expands Board

Safeway Inc. (SWY), the third-largest supermarket chain in North America, recently appointed Arun Sarin and Michael S. Shannon to its Board of Directors, expanding the number of members from 10 to 12. With these appointments, management brings on board some key

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CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS) Current share price $34.97

August 20, 2009 CVS by size and dollar volume is the leader in the drugstore marketplace, operating over 6,900 CVS/pharmacy stores in 44 states, the District of Columbia , and Puerto Rico . At year-end (Dec. 2008), they operated 6,923 drugstores, 560 MinuteClinic locations, 58 retail specialty pharmacy stores, 19 specialty mail order pharmacies, six mail service pharmacies, and CVS.com; and Caremark.com websites. CVS employs approximately 215,000 colleagues.

The top two major players in drugstore operations, CVS and Walgreens are on an expansion drive to either gain first place or locked in a struggle to retain the lead, so far CVS has held that position followed not to far behind by Walgreens.

Much of each company’s competitive edge comes from acquisitions, with the grand prize going to CVS for its insight in acquiring the well known Long Drug Store logo in August 2008. This acquisition

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DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Wednesday August 19, 2009

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VirtualHealth Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VHGI) announced today that it has filed its 8k in relation to the announcement made earlier this week on August 17th regarding the payment received from Private Access of $100,000 for interest and restructuring fees as well as VHGI’s agreement to revise the terms of its $1,500,000 note with Private Access. For complete details of the August 17th release please go to http://www.virtualhealthtechnologies.com/news.html

Valley National Bancorp (NYSE:VLY) (”Valley”), the holding company for Valley National Bank, announced today that a common stock cash dividend of $0.19 per share will be paid October 1, 2009 to shareholders of record

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

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

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

If you have these stocks in your portfolio,

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Safeway Inc.'s (SWY) share price tumbled about 8% today as the supermarket chain missed estimates in its first quarter.

Earnings for the quarter came in at 34 cents per share, which fell short of the consensus by 7 cents.

Sales dipped 7.6% to $9.2 billion, hurt by the shift in holiday sales, decrease in fuel margins and a fall in the Canadian currency exchange rate.

The company reduced its full-year earnings guidance to between $2.10 and $2.30 per share from its prior view of $2.34 to $2.44.

One analyst out of 14 pulled back on expectations in the last month, bringing the 2009 consensus down by a penny to $2.26 per share.

Meanwhile, Safeway increased its quarterly dividend to 10 cents per share.

Safeway, a Zacks #3 Rank ("Hold"), is currently moving on abnormally heavy volume of 8 million, well ahead of the daily average of 3.8 million.

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Highlights include Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFMI), The Kroger Co. (KR), Safeway Inc. (SWY), SuperValu Inc. (SVU) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT).This morning, Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFMI) announced that it has reached a settlement agreement resolving the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) antitrust challenge to the company's August 2007 acquisition of Wild Oats Markets, Inc. The FTC will issue a final ruling after a 30-day comment period.A 3rd-party divestiture trustee has been appointed to market the following for sale: leases and related assets for 19 non-operating former Wild Oats stores; leases and related fixed assets for 12 operating acquired Wild Oats stores and one operating Whole Foods Market store; and Wild Oats trademarks and other intellectual property associated with the Wild Oats stores.The company expects to record a non-cash charge of approximately $19 million or less relating ...

Safeway Inc.'s (SWY) fourth quarter results were slightly below expectations, but management issued 2009 EPS guidance of $2.34-$2.44, which is above the Zacks consensus estimate of $2.35. Even so, the stock sold off 13% on the news.

We think the sell-off is overdone, and we reiterate our Buy rating. Investors remain skittish about Safeway's future growth because consumers continue to trade down to cheaper alternatives, and that is pressuring the company's results.

In our view, SWY shares have declined to a level that discounts a weak macro environment that persists into 2010. Our six-month target price is $23 (down from $28), or about 10x our 2009 EPS estimate. Zacks Investment Research