Tuesday - February 13, 2007
 Want to view the archive of past issues? Click here. Manage your Profit from the Pros subscription: 1. ZACKS RANK BUY STOCKS Zacks #1 Rank stocks average a 31.8% annual return. Every day on Zacks.com we highlight four new Zacks Rank Buy stocks.
Each individual stock is chosen based on how well they match the criteria for the four main schools of investing:
Aggressive Growth, Momentum, Growth & Income and Value. Aggressive Growth - Greenfield Online (SRVY) Greenfield Online (SRVY) said last week it reported 13 cents
per share for its fourth quarter, more than doubling estimates.
The stock is up over 100% since it was first featured. Read the full analysis on SRVY now! Growth & Income - Principal Financial Group Inc. (PFG) Principal Financial Group Inc. (PFG) announced fourth-quarter earnings per share of 93 cents. With analysts calling for 88 cents, the company surprised to the upside by 5.7%. PFG earned 77 cents per share in the fourth quarter of last year. Total revenues increased to $2.56 billion from $2.46 billion. The company is up 9% since its debut as a Growth and Income pick on Nov 23. Read the full analysis on PFG now! Momentum - OPNET Technologies (OPNT) OPNET Technologies (OPNT) was first featured as a Zacks Momentum
Stock of the Day on Jun 1, 2006. Since that time the stock has
gained about 28%. The stock made a 52-week high back on Dec 15
at $16.82, and since then has been selling off, all the way
down to $$12.86 on Jan 25, 2007. Recently the stock has
recovered to between $15 and $16 per share. This most recent
recovery is a reaction to OPNT’s Jan 31 release of earnings
for the Dec 2006 quarter. OPNT reported EPS of 14 cents, up
133% from the year earlier quarter and 75% above analysts’
consensus estimates. Given this power in earnings, OPNT looks
to challenge its Dec highs. Read the full analysis on OPNT now! Value - Avnet, Inc. (AVT) Avnet, Inc. (AVT), first presented as a Value pick on Oct 31,
has returned nearly 46%. The company topped the Street's earnings estimate for the past five quarters. Consensus
estimates continue to trend higher for AVT. Read the full analysis on AVT now! Zacks Rank Resources
2. PROFIT TRACKS Zacks.com is proud to share with you some of the best trading
strategies that truly allow you to Profit from the Pros. Today
we highlight... Profit Tracks: Recent Price Strength This screen looks for stocks trading in the upper range of their 52-week highs along with attractive Zacks Rank and Broker Ratings. This strategy proves that the "trend is your friend" with a +35.5% return versus +4.9% for the S&P 500 in 2005. Fuel-Tech, Inc. (FTEK) will announce fourth-quarter and full- year results on Tuesday, March 6, 2007. The company is within reach of its 52-week high and experienced 6% growth over the past four weeks. In early, November FTEK posted third-quarter earnings of nine cents per share, which eclipsed the consensus estimate by almost 29% and improved on the year-prior total of five cents. Continue your research on FTEK now! Syntel Inc. (SYNT) reported fourth-quarter earnings of 32 cents per share, which jumped ahead of analysts’ expectations by 14%. The company’s quarterly results have been above Wall Street earnings estimates over the past five consecutive quarters. SYNT’s share price increased by 9% over the past four weeks and is currently near its 52-week high. Continue your research on SYNT now! Team Inc. (TISI) is a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) company. In early January, the company announced fiscal second-quarter earnings of 58 cents per share, surpassing the year-prior total of 41 cents and eclipsing the consensus estimate by 23%. TISI cited continued broad based organic growth across nearly all its geographic regions and noted that its outlook for the rest of the year remains strong. Team Inc. is trading near its 52-week high and experienced 2% growth over the past four weeks. Continue your research on TISI now! Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (TMO) is also a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) name that is currently trading close to its 52- week high. The company recently posted adjusted fourth-quarter earnings per share of 57 cents. The result topped the consensus estimate by 7.55% and surpassed the year-ago total. TMO stated that its strong growth momentum throughout 2006, bolstered by its industry-transforming merger with Fisher in November, led to a banner year. Continue your research on TMO now! To see the full list of stocks that currently pass this winning screen, click here. All the Profit Track strategies were created and backtested using the Research Wizard software from Zacks Investment Research. If you like this screening strategy, but want to narrow down the list of stocks and even improve the performance, then you should start a free trial to this powerful stock picking tool. Learn more about the Research Wizard free trial offer and our new special report “Top 10 Stock Screening Strategies”. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - With Earnings Season in full swing, Kevin Matras goes over a
screening strategy that targets consistently increasing
earnings. Read more... 3. ZACKS EQUITY RESEARCH With fourth quarter earnings season now past the half-way point, we wanted to get an idea how certain industries’ outlooks are for the first half of 2007 or so. Recently, we checked in with senior auto analyst Paul Raman, CFA for his perspective on the U.S. automotive industry. What steps are the Big Three U.S. automakers taking to help take back market share? Last fall, Ford (NYSE: F) announced it was accelerating its “Way Forward” plan, which was undertaken to restore profitability of the North American automotive business, its new products, profitable financial services business, and cost reduction efforts are some of the positive factors affecting the company. Also around that time, the appointment of Allan Mulally as Chief Executive Officer is further raising our outlook on the company. More. . .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - General Motors (NYSE: GM) management’s North American turnaround plan has been designed to mitigate the impact of the difficult industry conditions, its increased focus on the Asia-Pacific region, enhancement of its product portfolio and aggressive cost cutting. GM is currently trading in the range it had been when Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. divested its entire stake in GM and put downward pressure on the stock price. For its part, DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX) is benefiting from aggressive efficiency initiatives, cost reduction efforts, and new model launches. However, above-average launch costs, a competitive auto environment, and rising commodity and fuel costs diminish our enthusiasm for the stock, which we currently rate a Hold. So of these three, which do you expect will make the biggest positive impact near-term? Of these companies, we only have a Buy recommendation on GM at the present time. Going forward, we believe that the stock will continue to perform well. Our upgrade to GM occurred in early December of 2006, when the shares were trading under $30 per share. Is the manufacturing of alternative-energy vehicles playing a role in your positive outlook? GM is indeed concentrating on developing vehicles that will use alternative fuels such as ethanol/gasoline blended (E85) flex fuel. Until now, GM has sold 1.9 million E85 vehicles and plans to build over two million more in the next five years. The company is expected to add five more E85-capable models to its line-up for 2007, raising the number of total flex-fuel offerings to 14. Further, GM is revamping its marketing strategy and continues to support a more orderly and consistent alignment of its dealers, particularly among Buick, Pontiac, and GMC dealers, which will strengthen those brands. Read the complete Analyst Interview now! Paul Raman, CFA is a senior analyst covering the automotive industry for Zacks Equity Research. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Analyst Blog Real-time market insights from Zacks Equity Research Analysts. Stocks featured recently include Charlotte Russe (CHIC), Komag (KOMG), MoneyGram Int’l (MGI) and Harman Int’l (HAR). To see their latest posts, click here. Chalco (ACH) - Strong Aluminum Demand. For full Zacks research report, click here. Amazon.com (AMZN) - Far Overvalued. For full Zacks research report, click here. Earnings Preview for the Week of Feb 12 - 16 Earnings Preview for the Week of Feb 12 - 16 Find out which stocks have been recently upgraded by Zacks Equity Research: click here. Read the reports on all of the stocks on the Zacks Equity Research Buy List: click here.
4. OPTIONS CENTER Zacks has partnered with the leading options experts, Schaeffer's Investment Research, to provide you the best options commentary, research, and trading tools on the market today. Zacks/Schaeffer’s Options Trading service. We are doubling up on heavy put activity in this week’s edition of Trading Tools. Last week, Jocelynn Drake examined the Zacks Unusually High Put Volume filter, and with the recent run up in the major market indices, a double dose of this filter could be rather helpful. First and foremost, let's examine what a put is exactly. Puts are options that give the buyer the right, though not the obligation, to sell the underlying shares at the strike price. Thus, you do not have to own the shares to buy a put. Only if you exercise your put option would you have to go out in the open market, buy the shares, and then sell the stock at the contract (strike) price. In other words, a put buyer is generally pessimistic on a stock, expecting the shares to fall before the option expires. This week’s filter on Zacks lists stocks that are experiencing heavy put option volume in excess of their average during the past month. Each record displays volume from the previous trading sessions, average one-month volume, and the daily volume ratio (daily ratio / monthly average). Before looking at a particular stock, let’s address our Schaeffer’s methodology. We are contrarian-based investors, which mean that we want to see skepticism toward an outperforming stock. On the other hand, we want to see optimism toward an underperformer. In our eyes, too much optimism is a sign that nearly everyone who wants to invest in a particular stock already has. However, just because a stock sees substantial optimism doesn’t mean that we will blindly short that particular security; we need to see some negative price action or a major catalyst for a downside move in order to pull the trigger in most cases. Other indicators we use to measure overall sentiment include short interest, magazine cover stories, media comments, and analyst ratings. In scanning the list based on Thursday’s trading activity, tax preparation specialist H&R Block (HRB) caught my eye. The equity had more than 41,900 puts cross the tape on Thursday, which was more than 16 times the stock’s average daily trading volume. This surge in put trading resulted in a considerable leap in the stock’s Schaeffer’s put/call open interest ratio (SOIR). This ratio compares put open interest among options with less than three months until expiration against call open interest. Readings above 1.0 indicate that put open interest is larger than call open interest. HRB's SOIR was already elevated on Thursday, arriving at a reading of 1.54. The result of the heavy increase in put activity forced this ratio to nearly double, arriving at a reading of 4.24. What's more, HRB's SOIR now ranks at its highest level taken during the past 52 weeks. In other words, options speculators have not been more bearishly aligned against the shares during the past year. But, pessimism is pervasive when it comes to HRB, and options players are not alone in their disdain for the shares. Our next sentiment indicator focuses on short sellers. Shorting a stock means that you are selling it with the intention of buying it back later at a lower cost. Basically, you are betting that the shares will go down. In January, the number of HRB shares sold short rose by 30% to 13.6 million shares, accounting for about 4.5% of the stock's total float (or shares available for public trading). At the stock’s average daily trading volume, it would take more than eight days to buy back these bearish bets. An unwinding of these positions could provide some additional buying pressure for HRB, as the short sellers could be forced to repurchase these bearish bets in order to close out their existing positions. Another sentiment indicator that I like to look at involves analyst ratings. Upgrades and downgrades from the brokerage firms on Wall Street can be influential drivers for buying or selling pressure on a particular stock. By looking at the current ratings on an equity, we can judge the likelihood, or potential, for a shift in analyst sentiment. Currently, Zacks reports that six of the seven analysts covering HRB rate the shares a "hold" or worse. With only one brokerage firm offering up a "buy" rating, there is plenty of upside potential from the brokerage bunch, and thus ample room for upgrades that could bring sideline money to the table and help usher HRB higher. So, what exactly is the significance of all this pessimism? Remember that eventually, like the short sellers listed above, these bears could be forced to admit the error of their ways on HRB. And the stock's technical backdrop points to an increased likelihood of this happening. Since August 2006, HRB has rallied more than 20%, rallying along and consolidating into support at its 10-day and 20-day moving averages along the way. Currently, the shares are in a consolidation period, and gathering strength for another potential leg higher. On a longer-term basis, HRB has just reclaimed support at its 50-month moving average after rebounding from its 80-month counterpart. With support now solidly under its feet, the stock could be poised for that aforementioned rally, and an unwinding of bearish sentiment could provide the afterburners for such a move. What's more, our Schaeffer's Equity Scorecard has given HRB a rating of 9.0 out of 10, indicating that the path of least resistance for the shares remains to the upside. Make sure to continue utilizing all of the valuable filters on these pages for more money-making ideas. Moreover, don't be afraid to make a few paper trades in order to see what strategy works best for you. Please remember that, when it comes to options, the majority of your trades are going to be losers. Don't get discouraged. The beauty of the leverage that options provide is that it takes only a few winners out of every 10 trades to make you a very happy investor. Thanks for reading, best of luck in your trading! To learn more about the Unusually High Put Volume filter, click here. Discover all the tools and commentary available from the Zacks.com Options Center. Leverage the timeliness of Zacks #1 Rank stocks with options trades that maximize profits and minimize risks. Learn more about our new Options Trading service. 5. FEATURED EXPERTS Here we cast the spotlight on timely Featured Expert commentaries that recently appeared on Zacks.com. Economy on Solid Footing Entering 2007 Jim Collins sees a positive year for investors. Find out why and check out a stock review. More... Gregory Spear will be more protective of his capital until trading conditions improve. Discover why and read about three tech leaders. More... Richard Moroney says any pullback should be viewed as a buying opportunity. Read his commentary and check out a few stocks. More... OTHER TOOLS FROM ZACKS At the heart of Zacks Investment Research is the Zacks Rank investment philosophy that continues to vastly outperform the market. Our Zacks #1 Ranked (Strong Buys) have produced the following results for investors:
And just as importantly, the Zacks #5 Rank stocks (Strong Sell) List has alerted investors as to which stocks to dump from Their portfolios to avoid unnecessary losses. To truly take advantage of the Zacks Rank, you need to first understand how it works. That's why we created the free special report: Zacks Rank Guide: Harnessing the Power of Earnings Estimate Revisions. Download a free copy now to prosper in the years to come. Or view the full list of Zacks #1 Ranked stocks at. FREE PORTFOLIO TRACKER Do you believe that these events affect stock prices?
If you answered yes, then how are you staying on top of these changes for your stocks? If you are one of the 45,000 investors who wake up every morning to the Daily Portfolio Updates emails from Zacks.com, then you are all set. If not, then sign up now to get this vital information sent to you daily and improve your portfolio's performance. Did we mention it's free? Get started now! We hope you enjoyed this issue of "Profit from the Pros", And we look forward to visiting with you again next week. REFER-A-FRIEND If you enjoy this e-mail newsletter, then please pass it along to a friend. Simply forward them the link below to sign up for their own free subscription. If you're reading a forwarded copy, sign up for your own, so you get this wealth of information every week. Just click here. THANKS! Regards and Happy Investing, Charles Rotblut, CFA p.s. What is the mission for Zacks Profit from the Pros? Click here to find out how we will help you become a more successful investor. *The S&P 500 Index is a well-known, unmanaged index of the prices of 500 large-company common stocks, mainly blue-chip stocks, selected by Standard & Poor's. The S&P 500 Index assumes reinvestment of dividends but does not reflect advisory fees. An investor cannot invest directly in an index. Disclaimer: Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should always research companies and securities before making any investments. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. To contact us by mail: Zacks Investment Research To unsubscribe from receiving "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter, click here. | |||||||||
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Zacks #1 Stocks on the Move 05/23/2013
| Company Name | Symbol | %Change |
|---|---|---|
| WESTELL TECH | WSTL | 6.67% |
| STEIN MART I | SMRT | 5.38% |
| ALLIANCE FIB | AFOP | 5.21% |
| DAWSON GEOPH | DWSN | 4.33% |
| MARRIOTT VAC | VAC | 3.27% |
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