ProLogis (PLD), one of the leading global providers of distribution facilities, has recently signed an agreement with Marks & Spencer, a premier retailer in the U.K., to lease about 382,000 square feet of space in the country. The leased facility is located at ProLogis Park Store in Stoke-on-Trent city, which is approximately an hour from the Birmingham city center. The site has easy access to the highways, and offers better flexibility and efficiency for the supply chain operations of Marks & Spencer. ProLogis owns and manages interests in over 2,500 distribution facilities, service offices, and properties spanning 475 million square feet (including properties under development) of space. As of Jun 30, 2009, the company had 200.5 million square feet of direct-owned industrial properties -- 81.5% of which was located in North America, 14.2% in Europe, and 4.3% in Asia. With approximately 18.5 million square feet ...

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).

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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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Beijing-based supermarket chain Wumart Stores has published its financial report for the first half of 2009, stating that its sales through individual stores increased by 3.52% during the period. According to the report, Wumart's total revenue in the first six months of 2009 reached CNY5.705 billion, an increase of 22.9% compared with the same period in [...]

With being “green” in the air, consumers are continuously on the lookout for items that are more environmentally friendly at a good price. In the market of cleaning products for instance, consumers look for items that they can reuse again and again with outstanding results. Companies that offer diversity in their reusable cleaning products fair a little better in the market, especially when they offer a specialized, reusable product at the top of their selection. Large consumer based companies such as food market chains are more inclined to go with reusable solutions as well.

When chains consisting of numerous, high volume stores send purchase orders, they can get extremely large resulting in a positive change that is not far behind. Positive change happens for the employees and the company as a whole. As an old adage states, offer a good, reliable product and you won’t go hungry.

SpongeTech Delivery Systems, one

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Beijing-based supermarket chain Chaoshifa has announced plans to open a flagship store with an area of nearly 10,000 square meters in Beijing's Fengtai District. As a supermarket chain that formerly focused on small community supermarkets, Chaoshifa said the new supermarket is its largest store and marks the beginning of its 2009 flagship store strategy. Chaoshifa currently has [...]

China Resources Vanguard has announced that it has formally acquired the Wuxi-based supermarket chain Yong'an. China Resources Vanguard started discussions with Yong'an Supermarket about the acquisition at the beginning of 2008. In April 2009, the two sides signed an agreement, which said China Resources Vanguard would purchase Yong'an Supermarket by asset acquisition. On the completion of this [...]

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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Safeway Inc. (SWY) shares dropped in the double digits today after missing on fourth-quarter EPS and revenue expectations, but Zacks Equity Research analyst Robert Plaza, CFA says the sell-off looks overdone.

"I understand the market's concerns with Safeway's LifeStyle stores, which may be too pricey for consumers looking to scale back spending," said Plaza. "I think those concerns are priced in."

Plaza will be keeping his "Buy" rating on the stock.

SWY, which is attempting to lower costs during this recession, announced earnings per share of 80 cents, excluding items, earlier today. The result improved from the previous year, but came in a penny below the consensus.

Total sales increased 3.4% to $13.8 billion, compared to $13.4 billion a year earlier.

While it's never good to fall short of expectations, Plaza said that the supermarket chain didn't miss by enough to justify a 12% decline - especially since

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strongBusiness New Europe /strongbr /br /Jason Corcoran in Moscow br /br /January 23, 2009br /br /Merrill Lynch has ousted JP Morgan Chase to take the crown as leading adviser to Russian merger and acquisitions in 2008. br /br /US bank JP Morgan narrowly beat its Wall Street rival in 2007 due to its involvement in announced deals worth $40.8bn, compared with Merrill’s $39.2bn. However, last year Merrill nudged ahead through advising on 14 deals worth $24bn compared with JP Morgan’s 12 transactions worth $19.6bn, according to statistics prepared for bne by data provider Thomson Reuters. br /br /During the year, Merrill’s most notable deals included advising steelmaker Severstal on its $775m acquisition of US steel products manufacturer Esmark, as well as Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium producer, on its taking a 25% holding in domestic rival Norilsk Nickel. br /br /Overall, fees generated from MA were well down last year, …

Ma Jialiang, CEO of the Nanjing based supermarket chain Suguo, has announced the company's development plan for 2009. He said supported by its stable growth and good performance in 2008, Suguo would continue with its plans to invest over CNY1 billion and open more than 120 directly-managed outlets of different types. These stores will mainly be [...]