Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

American Apparel Inc (APP) Amerco Inc (UHAL) Ameriprise Financial Inc (AMP) ArvinMeritor Inc (ARM) Atlantic Tele-Network Inc (ATNI) Audiovox Corp (VOXX) Balchem Corp (BCPC) Banco de Chile (BCH) Bancorp Inc (TBBK) Bell Microproducts Inc (BELM) Cadbury Plc (CBY) Cantel Medical Corp (CMN) CareFusion Corp (CFN) Compellent Technologies Inc (CML) Diamond Foods Inc (DMND) Domtar Corp (UFS) Expedia Inc (EXPE) Fossil Inc (FOSL) ...

Viacom Inc. (VIA.B) today declared encouraging results for the third quarter. Quarterly net income from continuing operation was $443 million or 73 cents per share, compared to $385 million or 62 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. However, third-quarter adjusted (excluding one-time discrete tax benefit) EPS was 61 cents significantly above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 55 cents. This is mainly due to soaring increase in operating profit and effective cost management. Quarterly revenues of $3.32 billion was down 3% year over year but was in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate.   Operating income was $784 million, up 14% year over year driven by the solid performance of the Filmed Entertainment segment. At the end of the reported quarter, Viacom had $249 million of cash & cash equivalent and $6,852 million of outstanding debt on its balance sheet compared to $792 million of cash & cash ...

CBS Corporation (CBS), the media conglomerate, recently asserted that it still expects its full year 2009 operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) in the range of $1.725 billion to $1.925 billion.  The uptrend seen in the second-quarter 2009 revenue has made management optimistic and forecasted better results in the third and fourth quarters compared to the earlier quarters in 2009. The company also indicated some signs of revival in advertising demand in core categories like retail, telecom, pharmaceuticals and quick service restaurants.   Although the sluggish advertising market continues to hurt total revenue, which declined 11% to $3,006.3 million in the second-quarter 2009, but CBS saw a 3% improvement in quarterly revenue compared with a 14% drop in the first-quarter 2009.  In a separate story, National Amusement Inc., the holding company of media tycoon Sumner Redstone plans to sell its stake in CBS Corporation and ...

Is it time to buy a house? Depends…

If you need a place to live and want to own a house, why not? Prices in some areas are fairly reasonable. But if you’re speculating, our guess is that you’ll get a better deal if you wait.

Why? For the many reasons we have given you in these Daily Reckonings. House prices may be firming in some areas – that’s what the Case-Shiller numbers seem to show. But nationwide, they are probably headed down for quite a while longer.

Herewith, four reasons why:

First, as you know, this is a depression. It will probably be long. And deep. You wouldn’t know it from looking at the stock market or reading the news. The Dow went up another 114 points yesterday. Oil rose to $71. And the dollar – anticipating inflation – fell to $1.44 per euro.

But that’s what bounces are supposed to look like.

...

Highlights include Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (MVL), The Walt Disney Company (DIS), Time Warner, Inc. (TWX), News Corporation (NWS) and Viacom, Inc. (VIA).Marvel Entertainment's (MVL) characters are demonstrating super-human resiliency to the recession. The comic book publisher reported 1Q09 EPS of $0.57, trouncing the Zacks estimate ($0.35) and the consensus ($0.36), driven largely by the timing of film revenue recognition, but also by better-than-expected licensing and film production results.EPS in the year-ago quarter was $0.58, benefiting from the release of two self-produced films. No films were released in 1Q09.Because most of the 1Q09 earnings beat came from earlier-than-expected recognition of film production revenue, management raised the lower end of its 2009 EPS guidance by just $0.10 -- reflecting stronger licensing and film production revenue, and a lower effective tax rate.Though no new films were released in 1Q09, ...

Viacom Inc. (VIA.B) today reported first-quarter earnings of 29 cents per share, which came ahead of the reduced consensus by 3 cents.

The owner of MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon witnessed a tough quarter as revenues declined 7% year over year to $2.9 billion, as lower advertising income and a stronger dollar affected performance.

Eight analysts lowered full-year expectations over the past month, while 1 analyst raised the expectation. The consensus estimate has declined by 2 cents during this period to $2.04 per share.

Meanwhile, rival Time Warner Inc. (TWX) reported first-quarter earnings of 45 cents per share yesterday, topping the consensus by 2 cents. The owner of Turner Broadcasting and HBO also said it was planning to spin-off struggling internet unit AOL.

VIA.B, a Zacks #3 Rank ("Hold") stock, is up about 2% on volume of approximately 1.7 million, compared to average volume of about

...

Liberty Media [LMDIA: 17.34, +0.15 (+0.87%)] has been in the news a lot lately, due to CEO John Malone’s recent bailout of Sirius XM Radio [SIRI: 0.2473, +0.0123 (+5.23%)]. This article is not about that deal, however. This article is an attempt to explain the structure of Liberty Media, which is sure to confuse most amateur investors, as well as some professional ones. This is because Liberty uses “tracking stocks,” which have not been popular since the dot-com days of the 90’s.

According to investopedia.com, a tracking stock is a “common stock issued by a parent company that tracks the performance of a particular division without having claims on the assets of the division or the parent company.”

When a parent company issues a tracking stock, all revenue and expenses of the applicable division are separated from the parent company’s financial statements

...

Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

Aaron Rents Inc (RNT) ADA-ES Inc (ADES) Ajinomoto Co Inc (AJINY) Alleghany Corp (Y) Apollo Group Inc (APOL) Atmos Energy Corp (ATO) Bio-Imaging Technologies Inc (BITI) Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP (CLMT) CARBO Ceramics Inc (CRR) Care Investment Trust Inc (CRE) Cell Therapeutics Inc (CTIC) China Agritech Inc (CAGC) China Information Security Tech Inc (CPBY) Church & Dwight Co Inc (CHD) CTI Industries Corp (CTIB) DXP Enterprises Inc (DXPE) ev3 Inc (EVVV) Hellenic Telecom Organization SA (OTE) ICT Group Inc (ICTG) Ikanos Communications Inc (IKAN) Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corp (IART) James Hardie Industries NV (JHX) La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co (LJPC) Labopharm Inc (DDSS) Lincoln Educational Services Corp (LINC) Macrovision Solutions ...

Diamond Foods Inc. (DMND) shares are trading on an unusually high volume. The food company's stock registered a 12% gain this afternoon.

Viacom Inc. (VIA.B) stock is experiencing unusually low trading volume. Shares declined nearly 3% today.

"DMND" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?"VIA.B" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?Zacks Investment Research

Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

Amtrust Financial Services Inc (AFSI) Antares Pharma Inc (AIS) AsiaInfo Holdings Inc (ASIA) AtriCure Inc (ATRC) Bayer AG (BAYRY) CBIZ Inc (CBZ) Command Security Corp (MOC) Continucare Corp (CNU) CSG Systems International Inc (CSGS) Daimler AG (DAI) Dolby Laboratories Inc (DLB) Elbit Systems Ltd (ESLT) Helicos BioSciences Corp (HLCS) HMS Holdings Corp (HMSY) Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) I-Many Inc (IMNY) Ikanos Communications Inc (IKAN) Immunomedics Inc (IMMU) Incyte Corp (INCY) James Hardie Industries NV (JHX) Kirkland's Inc (KIRK) Landry's Restaurants Inc (LNY) MAKO Surgical Corp (MAKO) MAP Pharmaceuticals Inc (MAPP) Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MTU) National Beverage Corp (FIZZ) NorthWestern Corp (NWE) Novartis AG (NVS) Novavax ...