Companies featured in this edition of the newsletter: CHIP, ENZ, GERS, IWEB, OMCM, ONEZ, XSNX

Markets hit fresh highs for ‘09 yet again last week, as the first round of earnings helped to assuage investor concerns that operating results would underpin robust gains in equities this year. All told, the Dow gained 130 points to end the week at 9995 after briefly cracking the 10,000 mark, gaining 1.3% on the week and extending its gains to 13.9% on the year. The Nasdaq gained 0.8% on the week to close at 2156, up 36.8% on the year, while the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 gained 1.5% and 0.2% respectively, bringing their YTD totals to 20.4% and 23.4%.

Earnings stole the spotlight last week as things got off to a strong start early with JP Morgan handily beating expectations calling for $0.51 per share, reporting earnings of $0.82 per share. Citigroup

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Thursday October 8, 2009

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

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Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) and ITA Software, Inc., the leader in developing innovative solutions for the travel industry, today announced advanced capabilities that support Southwest’s website enhancements and allows the airline to further extend the capabilities of southwest.com moving forward. Southwest selected ITA’s QPX(TM) system to support its recent website updates, making it even easier for customers to take advantage of the airline’s industry-leading low fares.

Midcontinent Express Pipeline (MEP) has received authorization from the Pipelines Hazardous

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ProLogis (PLD), one of the leading global providers of distribution facilities, has reappointed Irving F. Lyons III on its Board to bring in experience that is invaluable to the company. Lyons had earlier served ProLogis as the Chief Investment Officer from 1997 to 2004. He was also a board member of the company from 1996 until his retirement in 2006. With his appointment, ProLogis has brought on board over 30 years of management experience in the industrial sector to instill a fresh perspective and dynamism to the company. In a separate development, ProLogis announced the lease of a 215,000 square feet distribution space in Southern California to Golden State Container – a leading international provider of packaging and storage solutions. The lessee will occupy the newly constructed space at ProLogis Park Ontario Airport. Spanning across 1.9 million square feet, the park includes state-of-the-art facilities. The ...

Companies featured in this edition of the newsletter: ACTC, CVM, CUR, DKAM, FMTI, ICLK, IMUC, IWEB, OMCM, ONEZ, SIHI, TAGS

Markets took pause from their four week run this week, as some less than encouraging economic reports coupled with profit taking led to slight declines in all of the major indices. All told, the Dow ended the week down 0.5%, surrendering 48 points to close at 9321, bringing its YTD gains to 6.2%. The Nasdaq was off 0.7%, closing at 1985, up a healthy 25.9% on the year, while the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 were down 0.6% and 1.5% respectively, paring their yearly gains to 11.2% and 12.9%.

Disappointing economic data relating to inventories and consumer sentiment soured the mood for much of the week, as worse than expected declines in retail sales, consumer sentiment, and business and wholesale inventories gave investors cause for concern. Retail sales

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Earnings estimates on STEC, Inc. (STEC) have been steadily advancing of late, especially after its second-quarter report from a week ago today.

< ?DART(15);?> Shares are up approximately nearly 5% Monday afternoon on what appears to be a sluggish day for the market. (The last time STEC was featured as a Zacks #1 Rank Top Performer was Jul 16, as it announced a $120 million supply agreement.) Volume is up to almost 2 million shares, which is below the daily average of 3.6 million.

The only other company from the computers-storage devices industry on today's Zacks #1 Rank List is Western Digital Corporation (WDC). (There are currently 234 stocks on today's list.)

STEC designs, manufactures and markets high performance storage solutions. Its product portfolio includes the industry's broadest solid-state drives (SSD) offerings.

Estimates Up Since Q2 Report

STEC has enjoyed

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Emerson Electric Co. (EMR) posted third-quarter profit of $0.51 per share, below the Zacks Consensus Estimate, on net sales of $5.1 billion, which also missed our expectation. Quarterly net sales declined 22% year over year, including 4% unfavorable impact from currency exchange rates and 1% positive impact from acquisitions.

Restructuring charges of $83 million hurt earnings by $0.05 per share and were higher than the year-ago quarter. Operating margin fell 190 basis points from last year due to lower sales volume, liquidation of operational inventory and unfavorable mix, partially offset by cost reductions due to aggressive outsourcing. There was a 60 basis point increase in operating margin from the second quarter on flat revenue.

For the third quarter, operating cash flow increased 11% versus last year to $916 million and capital expenditures were $116 million resulting in free cash flow (which equals operating cash flow less capital expenditures)

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In a recent press release, Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) disclosed that, it is buying a privately held software specialist Ibrix. While the company did not disclose the specific terms, it expects the deal to close by next month. Hewlett-Packard is mainly looking to increase its storage capacity through this acquisition. Ibrix's file-serving software, which helps scan vast quantities of data, is often a nightmare for chief information officers. We believe that there is good demand for cost effective storage, which can manage substantial amounts of information. HPQ’s acquisition of Ibrix is expected to cater to that need. Specially at a time when HPQ is eyeing the cloud storage market, which will require extremely large data storage capacity, the new acquisition will prove beneficial and directly help its cloud computing business. The company did not disclose the financial implications of this acquisition, and if it is justified or ...

Shares of STEC, Inc. (STEC) have surged more than 16% Thursday after the company announced a supply agreement with one of its largest enterprise storage customers.

< ?DART(15);?> Volume for this Zacks #1 Rank Top Performer is soaring today at approximately 5.3 million, which is more than double its daily average of about 2 million.

STEC designs, manufactures and markets high performance storage solutions. Its product portfolio includes the industry's broadest solid-state drives (SSD) offerings. There is only one other company from the computer - storage devices industry on today's 226-stock Zacks #1 Rank List; and that other company is Western Digital Corporation (WDC).

A $120 Million Supply Agreement

STEC didn't name the other company in this agreement, but, whoever that enterprise storage company might be; it sure does like ZeusIOPS SSDs - a lot. According to the agreement, STEC will supply

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Data Domain Inc. (DDUP) shares touched a new 52-week high Tuesday, a day after receiving an unsolicited buyout proposal from EMC Corp. (EMC) that topped an earlier bid for the backup system provider from NetApp Inc. (NTAP).

EMC's cash offer of $30 per share values Data Domain at about $1.8 billion, while NetApp had proposed to acquire the company for $1.5 billion last month.

"Our substantially superior proposal is a win-win for both companies," EMC Chief Executive Joe Tucci said on Monday. Data Domain's data deduplication products make a strategic fit for EMC's storage solutions and will help the company to hold up better in the face of slumping revenue.

EMC also said that the deal would add to its 2010 earnings, and be neutral to 2009 results. While it remains to be seen if NetApp comes up with a better offer, Data Domain shareholders rejoiced at

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Emulex Corporation (ELX) is a provider of enterprise-class solutions and technologies that intelligently connect storage, services and networks to ensure data access that’s open, secure and adaptable. The company’s award-winning Emulex HBAs consists of intelligent storage platforms and embedded storage products, including switches, bridges, routers and I/O controllers that build reliable, scalable and high performance stories and server solutions for the most demanding of data centers. The company, based in Costa Mesa, California, has been in operation for nearly 30 years.

The company announced today that its LightPulse® LP21000 family of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Converged Network Adapts (CNAs) have been certified for use with NetApp’s newly announced native FCoE and Fibre Channel SAN storage solutions. The Emulex LP21000 family of CNAs leverages Fibre Channel SAN technology, allowing companies to extend their existing investments in infrastructure, management, training and processes. Emulex CNAs enable lower operational costs

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