SanDisk’s (SNDK) third quarter 2009 earnings exceeded the Zacks Consensus EPS by 61 cents and revenue by 19.4%.  Revenue  Total revenue for the quarter was $935.0 million, up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis and up 28.0% on a sequential basis. Revenue exceeded the company’s expectation of $725.0 million to $775.0 million, due to a sequential increase in both Product revenue and License & Royalty revenue. This apart, the company’s results were positively impacted by order strength at its OEM customers, which is expected to continue in the fourth quarter.  Total revenue for the quarter included $814.0 million in Product revenue (an increase of 18.0% year over year and 33.0% sequentially) and $121.3 million in License & Royalty revenue (down 8.0% year over year and up 1.0% sequentially). The increase in Product revenue can be attributed to the increase in gigabytes sold. Gigabytes increased 107.0% year-over-year and ...

• Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) reported third quarter earnings of $1.20 a share, 18 cents ahead of Zacks estimates, on third quarter revenues of $5.56 billion.  The company said, "Our performance in the third quarter once again was driven by volume-based sales growth, improving gross margins and tight control of operating expenses, allowing us to deliver very attractive earnings growth"

• Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) results beat Zacks estimates of 7 cents, coming in at 13 cents, as the company’s operations benefitted from cost-cutting measures; revenues held steady with last quarter's at $1.13 billion.  According to CFO Morse, "There's a change occurring in Yahoo, that will value that kind of work - that good old-fashioned, get-your-hands-dirty kind of find ways to take costs down or make sure that they don't go up as much as they otherwise would have - type work"

• SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) results also beat projections on earnings of 75 cents, well

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MARKET COMMENT October 20, 2009 TAKING A BREAK It was a pretty strange day. Logic would argue for a big rally following earnings from Apple, Texas Instruments and Caterpillar; but no, instead investors focused on weaker than expected housing data and sold. It’s like I said at the end of last night’s commentary: “that’s why they play the game.” As this is written, the “better than expected” earnings are rolling in from the likes of Yahoo and SanDisk. Both stocks are bid higher in after hours trading. And volume is repeating the previous pattern of being heavier (although today’s volume was hardly “heavy”) on selling than buying. Breadth was negative. ...

With buyers back in action, US stocks rose to their fresh one-year highs and remained near their high points as optimism grew that an economic recovery, helped by solid third-quarter earnings reports and increased M&A activity, is on cards. 

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 96.28 points, or 0.96%, to close at 10,092.19.  The broader S&P 500 index jumped 10.23 points, or 0.94%, to 1,097.91 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 19.52 points, or 0.91%, to 2,176.32, its highest point since September 26, 2008.  Market breadth was positive, with advancing shares ahead of decliners by a margin of three-to-one.  Only five of the DJIA thirty declined in price.

After the close, iPhone maker Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) reported better-than-estimated numbers, fuelling hopes for the technology industry.  Last week Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Intel Corp’s (NASDAQ:INTC) numbers had come in above expectations.

Although there were some jitters last

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Although investors appeared hesitant and positioned themselves ahead of corporate earnings reports, the Dow Jones industrial average inched closer to the 10,000-level before some afternoon weariness saw indexes sinking sharply.  At the end of the session that was characterized by slow trading, the Dow managed to notch up some gains to remain in contention for the 10,000 mark – a level it last breached nearly a fortnight after Lehman’s fateful collapse in September 2008. 

The Dow Jones industrial average, which rose as high as 9931.82 points in the morning, gained 20 points to close at 9885.80.  The broad S&P 500 index rose 4.70 points, or 0.44%, to close at 1,076.19 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day little changed.  Bond markets were closed for the Columbus Day holiday.  On the New York Stock Exchange, 16 stocks were higher in price for every 14 that fell.

Eight of the ten

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U.S. stocks jumped to their highest level in almost a year after Federal Reserve’s Beige Book survey said the economy is showing signs of stabilization.  Although shares closed off their session highs, the report was enough to lift sentiments on the Street.  However, the report did indicate that labor markets are weak and retail sales are not picking up.  Industrial shares rallied after Goldman Sachs raised its view on the U.S. multi-industry group, noting the industrial activity is picking up.  Treasuries made a partial comeback after the government’s 10-year note auction witnessed a strong response.

The greenback remained near its year lows against a basket of currencies while gold prices eased a little to settle at $995.30.  Crude prices were slightly up ahead of the September OPEC meeting.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which rose as much as 80 points earlier in the session, pared some gains to close

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 25, 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.

Key Points from Van Dijk's Latest Earnings Assessment

Growth

Second-quarter total net income down 31.0% year-over-year Third quarter expected to be down 27.5% year-over-year Staples and Health Care only sectors to post positive growth in second quarter Only 30.9% of companies posted earnings growth; 23.7% posted sales growth year-over-year

Surprise

Results much stronger than feared with median surprise of 6.7% Positive surprises lead disappointments by 3.4:1 margin (surprise ratio) Surprise ratio above 8:1 for Health Care and above 4:1 for Tech, Staples ...

Key Points:

Growth

Second-quarter total net income down 31.0% year-over-year Third quarter expected to be down 27.5% year-over-year Staples and Health Care only sectors to post positive growth in second quarter Only 30.9% of companies posted earnings growth; 23.7% posted sales growth year-over-year

Surprise

Results much stronger than feared with median surprise of 6.7% Positive surprises lead disappointments by 3.4:1 margin (surprise ratio) Surprise ratio above 8:1 for Health Care and above 4:1 for Tech, Staples and Discretionary Margins the cause, not revenue growth 71.2% of firms beat on earnings: 45.9% beat sales estimates

Levels

Bottom-up estimate for S&P 500 now $60.60 in 2009 versus $60.41 last week. S&P 500 now expected to earn $74.90 in 2010 versus $74.74 last week Top down estimates $53.84 and $67.44, respectively

Revisions

Total estimate increases outnumber cuts by more than 5:3 for 2009 Upward revisions outnumber cuts by more than 4:3 for 2010 Revisions ratios for both years have risen consistently through earnings season For

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Apple Inc. (AAPL) has undergone a total turnaround. The first nine months of 2009 is evidence of this trend as both revenue and earnings exhibited growth, beating the Zacks Consensus estimate and the company’s own guidance.

The main growth driver for Apple is its increased Mac shipments and higher iPhone sales. The company’s Macintosh product continues to gain market share, with significant gains in portables, music players and smartphones.

We believe the strong growth at Apple is primarily driven by increased revenue contribution from iPhone, which has exceeded our estimates. Meanwhile, strong revenue growth has also driven margins and resulted in significantly higher earnings.

However, the company provided a cautious revenue outlook for the upcoming quarter due to the global crisis followed by lower consumer spending. A weak MP3 market has also led to lower iPod sales. Although demand for traditional MP3 players could continue to decline, it

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 28, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Raytheon Company (RTN) as the Bull of the Day and SanDisk (SNDK) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Honda (HMC), Toyota (TM) and Ford (F).

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:

Raytheon Company (RTN) offers investors strong order bookings and order backlog, an improving balance sheet, growing cash flow, operational improvements and an above-industry average ROE.

Going forward, growth will be driven by focus on ISR unmanned systems, training, cyber security, Standard Missile-3, Patriot, Zumwalt and THAAD. Accordingly, we note a bias towards outperformance and maintain our BUY recommendation on RTN common stock with a six-month target price of $49.25.

Price appreciation to our

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