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ALL STAR SURVEY REVEALS TOP ANALYSTS FOR FIRST HALF OF 2006

Chicago,IL-August 24, 2006- Despite concerns about inflation, rising interest rates plus other macroeconomic and geopolitical issues that impacted the stock market during the first half of this year, earnings data continued to be robust. Even though earnings growth slowed a bit, positive surprises outnumbered negative surprises by a decent margin. This while revisions to full year forecasts remained basically unchanged.

This positive earnings news, however, still should not be viewed by investors as a substitute for researching brokerage analysts whose stock recommendations proved to be the most profitable. "Making money is dependant on selecting the best stocks, not just those that are showing growth," says Charles Rotblut, senior market analyst for Zacks Investment Research's online unit, zacks.com. Because serious investment decisions are frequently made based upon stock analysts' opinions, Zacks analyzes the performance of the stock recommendations made by brokerage analysts on an ongoing basis.  Analysts who are objectively determined to be at the top of their game, receive the prestigious title of "All-Star", with the 5 Star ranking being the best of the best.  "There continues to be a select group of brokerage analysts who are able to identify the stocks most likely to outperform the market," Rotblut explains. "Given the volatility over the past few months, paying attention to the right analysts is extremely important."

Among industries that performed bullishly throughout the first half of this year are: miscellaneous  metals, which is comprised of companies that use various metals in the products they manufacture, consumer electronics, the integrated oil industry as well as oil refiners and oil services. But, surprisingly, the top 5-Star analyst as ranked by the Zacks All Star Analyst Survey, Is Howard Halpern, specialty foods analyst at Taglich Brothers, Inc.  His total first half return was 74.45% compared to the average industry return of just 5.97%.  This represents marked improvement for Halpern, who placed fourth in the 5-Star category at the end of 2005.

The Top 10, 5 Star Analysts for the first half of 2006 include…

Analyst

Industry

Return

Brokerage Firm

Industry Ave.

Howard Halpern

Foods

74.45%

Taglich Brothers,Inc.

5.97%

Daniel Amir

Telecomm. & Network Equip.

70.15%

WR Hambrecht & Co.

0.86%

Shelton Yip

Precious Metals

67.55%

Research Capital Corp.

13.31%

Richard Eckert

Retail: Specialty

67.36%

Roth Capital Partners, Inc.

2.28%

Terry Peters

Oil: Integrated

60.00%

Canaccord Adams

13.52%

Thomas Watts

Telecomm. & Network Equip.

58.62%

Cowen & Co.

0.86%

Anthony Rizzuto

Steel

50.18%

Bear Stearns Companies, Inc.

15.04%

Daniel Altman

Steel

49.07%

Bear Stearns Companies, Inc.

15.04%

Erik Zamkoff

Internet

47.16%

Morgan Joseph

1.6%

Curtis Trimble

Oil: Services

45.91%

Sterne, Agee & Leach, Inc.

11.01%

Analyst performance is measured by the return an investor would have achieved if they followed the analyst's recommendations. The Zacks All Star Analyst Survey tracks the performance of approximately 2300 individual Wall Street analysts, employed by 150 brokerage firms. To be eligible for star rankings in an industry, analysts must have made at least 3 simultaneous recommendations for companies within that industry during the year.

The Zacks Stars are assigned to an analyst in an industry based on the performance of a hypothetical model portfolio which includes, at any time, all stocks in the industry rated by the analyst.  All stocks in an analyst's portfolio are given equal weight. It is assumed that their portfolio begins each year with an equal amount of money invested in each of the stocks recommended by the analyst at the beginning of the year. Portfolio holdings are rebalanced to equally weighted positions at the end of trading days on which a stock recommendation is changed in the portfolio. Portfolio returns include capital gains and dividends.

To learn which brokerage analysts are the best in their field and which stocks they are recommending today, see the Zacks All Star Analyst survey online at http://www.zacks.com/research/allstar/index.php where you can search them by any criteria.

Zacks Investment Research, Inc., the Chicago based provider of market data, has been conducting this survey since 1993. From this survey, Zacks has also created a portfolio of stocks recommended as a Buy from at least 5 or more All Star Analysts (http://www.zacks.com/portfolios/allstar/index.php).