Tuesday - July 31, 2007
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Dear Subscriber, Many of our subscribers received an email yesterday with the subject line of "Welcome to the Zacks Elite" which referenced the stock PXLW. This was not a legitimate email communication or solicitation from Zacks Investment Research, Inc., Zacks.com or any other Zacks entity. It was, rather, a form of "phishing" email as well as a fraudulent attempt to induce you to purchase the stock referenced in the original email. It's important to note that this fraudulent email did NOT represent any breach of ANY of Zacks systems, servers or databases. The spammers only used our brand and replica of email format to make their message seem legitimate as is too often done with other well known brands such as eBay, Amazon and Citibank. We are extremely sensitive to spamming and it is not a business practice of ours. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or concern this may have caused you. Rest assured that Zacks Investment Research and Zacks.com will always respect your privacy and will continue to provide the highest quality stock research and commentary available. Best, Charles Rotblut, CFA 1. ZACKS RANK BUY STOCKS Zacks #1 Rank stocks average a 32.2% 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 - Kyphon (KYPH) Listen to the audio podcast on LZ through Zacks' NEW Audio Feature. Lubrizol Corp. (LZ) reported second-quarter earnings of $1.17 per share, up from 94 cents per share in the year-ago period and five cents above analysts' expectations. Revenues rose 10.6% to $1.15 billion, spurred by gains in the additives and advanced materials segments. The company also raised the lower end of its full-year earnings guidance. Lubrizol now expects to earn between $3.80 and $3.90 per share, up from early estimates of $3.70 to $3.90. Read the full analysis on LZ now! Anixter International Inc. (AXE) posted second-quarter profits of $1.53 per share. With analysts calling for $1.30 per share, the company surprised by a solid 17.7%. The result also represented a 30.0% year-over-year improvement. AXE has now beaten the Street's estimate in 11 consecutive quarters. Revenues increased 21.8% to $1.51 billion. Consensus earnings estimates continue to trend higher for the company. Read the full analysis on AXE now!
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: Earnings and Margins This Profit Track goes to the heart of fundamental investing by finding companies with healthy earnings. The main ingredients are the search for Earnings Growth and Net Profit Margins. Then for good measure we make sure earnings estimates are moving higher which is a strong indicator of future performance and that brokerage firms are positively rating the stock. Here are four stocks that make the grade for the Earnings and Margins Profit Track: Allis-Chalmers Energy, Inc. (ALY) will announce second-quarter
results on August 8, 2007. In early May, the company posted
first-quarter results, which included earnings per share that
beat the consensus estimate by 14% and were ahead of the
year-prior result. ALY sports earnings per share growth of 231%
for the most recently completed year, versus the year-prior.
The company offers a net margin of 0.12. Read the full analysis on ALY now! Dynamex, Inc. (DDMX) has a net margin of 0.04. For the last
full year, the company's earnings growth stands 17% over the
year-prior. Dynamex reported fiscal third-quarter earnings
of 32 cents per share in early June. The result matched the
consensus estimate and outperformed the year-ago quarter.
Sales increased 19.1% from the prior-year quarter. Read the full analysis on DDMX now! Gulfport Energy Corp. (GPOR), a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy)
company, released first-quarter earnings of 21 cents per share
in mid-May. The result surged past the previous year's eight cents.
Gulfport Energy Corp. meets the criteria for this Profit Track
as evidenced by its net margin of 0.46 and full-year earnings
growth of 141%, when compared to the year-prior result. Read the full analysis on GPOR now! IntegraMed America, Inc. (INMD) offers a net margin of 0.03.
The company sports earnings growth of 80% for the most recently
completed year, versus the year-prior. INMD will report results
for the second quarter on August 2, 2007. In early May, the
company released first-quarter results, mentioning that it had
solid growth in revenue and contribution from the Provider
segment of the business. Read the full analysis on INMD 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”. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Listen to the audio podcast for the Screen of the Week through Zacks' NEW Audio Feature. Great Stocks Often Have Great Peers Kevin Matras looks at how to use Price and Volume for locking in profits, cutting losses and spotting potential trend changes. More... 3. ZACKS EQUITY RESEARCH [Due to] the news that medical technology company Medtronic plans to buy out Kyphon, a company that develops medical devices for treatment of the spine, we are joined by senior analyst Greg Aurand, CFA for his perspective on this occurrence. This merger is pretty big news in your industry, isn't it? Yeah, it's pretty big. It's not wholly unexpected. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense from the perspective that Medtronic (MDT) really needed to add a product to their spine portfolio. Of course, they're one of the largest spine players in the marketplace, so for them to pick up Kyphon (KYPH) makes perfect sense for them. More. . .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - You had a Buy on Kyphon for quite awhile before this news came out, and you've just recently downgraded it, correct? I downgraded it to a Hold simply because the increase in the price, given the merger announcement. With the stock in the upper $60s - well above my original valuation target price - it made sense to downgrade it to a Hold. I believe the deal will go through in early '08 at the $71 per share price. But in any case, the upside is nominal here at this point. Does this make Medtronic the clear and away leader in the spine category at this point? Well, assuming the deal closes, of course - and I assume it does - yes it does. They were one of the largest players in the spine [group] to begin with. The one area they didn't have a large play in was in kyphoplasty. As you might recall, we talked about Kyphon in the past; they'd been pretty protective of their patent portfolio regarding kyphoplasty, and they've sued several competitors and removed them from the market or obtained royalties. Medtronic was facing the same situation with Kyphon. In fact, both companies were currently embroiled in litigation, which of course will now dissolve or go away with the pending merger. In the medical technology industry in general, are you seeing big mergers happening a lot these days, or is this kind of the first of what you think might be M&A activity that accelerates in this group? Well, we've seen some reverse deals. We mentioned the Biomet (BMET) deal, which was a private equity arrangement, taking money out of the public market into the private market. This is actually the largest of the public deals that we've seen of late in the medical device space. We've seen a couple other smaller ones, including EV3 (EVVV), which is merging with FoxHollow (FOXH) - two small players in the peripheral vascular market. But this is by and large the largest one I've seen of late. This doesn't mean, of course, there won't be larger deals coming down the pipe, but nonetheless this is the largest one to date. To read the complete Analyst Interview, click here. Gregory Aurand, CFA is a senior analyst covering the medical devices and supplies industry for Zacks Equity Research. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Real-time market insights from Zacks Equity Research Analysts. Stocks featured recently include Medtronic (MDT), Kyphon (KYPH), Royal Caribbean (RCL) and Enersis S.A. (ENI). Get their latest posts: click here. Coca-Cola FEMSA (KOF) - Strong Latin Growth. For full Zacks research report, click here. Pharmion Corp. (PHRM) - Kept Under Pressure. For full Zacks research report, click here. Listen to the audio podcast for the Earnings Preview through Zacks' NEW Audio Feature:
The Week of Jul 30 - Aug 3 Listen to the audio podcast for Earnings Trends through Zacks' NEW Audio Feature:
On Track for 20th Quarter of Double-Digit Growth 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. After checking in with the Zacks Put/Call Ratio Greater than 1.0 filter last week, I decided to move on in order to dive into some of the other valuable filters. With this week's heavy selling, the Unusually High Option Volume filter caught my eye. Now, put activity amid a market sell-off is not out of the ordinary, as traders are looking frantically to protect their investments. However, when you weigh that activity against the stock's technical factors, this heavy put activity can offer up interesting investing opportunities for the bullishly inclined. Thinking along those lines, I scanned the companies at the top of Thursday's list. We had some of the big players in the options pits, like Apple (AAPL), Lowe's (LOW), Merrill Lynch (MER), and EMC Corp. (EMC). But with Apple blowing away the competition with solid earnings, Lowe's continuing to get pressure from the housing market, and EMC's technical picture now in jeopardy following a lackluster earnings report last week, I decided to press a bit further onward for a stock without a headline reason for being on the list. With these stipulations in place, SanDisk (SNDK) managed to catch my eye. Yes, the company released quarterly earnings last week, but the stock has yet to truly react to its Street- beating report, hampered by a rather volatile trading environment. However, with solid earnings and a technical uptrend holding firm amid the broad-market turmoil, it seems quite out of the ordinary for SanDisk to be listed on the Unusually High Option Volume filter. Before we dive any deeper into technicals and sentiment, a little background is in order. What is the filter? Well, let's first define a put and a call. A put is simply a bet that the underlying stock is going to move lower, while a call is a bet that the underlying stock is going to move higher. According to our Expectational AnalysisR methodology, heavy attention paid to calls by investors indicates an increase in optimism toward an equity, and can present the opportunity for a solid bearish addition to your portfolio. This week's filter from Zacks lists stocks that have received an unusually high degree of put activity recently, providing us with a pool of securities that could fit the bill for a nice long position. You can sort the results either alphabetically by underlying issue, or from highest call activity to lowest call activity. Before looking at SNDK more in depth, let's address our Schaeffer's methodology. We are contrarian-based investors, indicating that we want to see skepticism toward an outperforming stock. On the other hand, we typically like 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. 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. Returning to SNDK, we have a company that has demonstrated strengthening fundamentals, beating the Street's second- quarter expectations by14 cents per share on July 19. Meanwhile, the shares have gained more than 58% since tagging a low of $35.82 in early March. Since that low, SNDK has rallied along the support of its 10-day and 20-day moving averages, and even flirted with a 52-week high near $60 before the broader market pulled back sharply last week. Furthermore, SNDK has outperformed the S&P 500 Index (SPX - 1,486.06) on a daily basis since late May, as the shares continue to weather the credit and housing storm that is raging on the rest of Wall Street. However, investors aren't looking for SNDK to extend its current rally. Sentiment has deteriorated into the bearish nether regions, which is seen as a boon for the shares from a contrarian perspective. For example, options players have been very pessimistic lately, as evidenced by the stock's appearance in the Unusually High Option Volume filter. Furthermore, SNDK's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) has steadily risen from a mid-March low near 0.50 to its current perch at 0.69. While the current reading ranks near the mid-point of its annual range, the increasing pessimism levied against SNDK while the stock is in an uptrend is seen as a positive development from a contrarian point of view. The result of this pessimism is that 12,612 puts now call the August 55 strike home. This strike is just below SNDK's current perch, and could provide a springboard from which the shares can rally higher. On the other hand, peak call open interest (which could provide resistance to a move higher) resides at the 60 level, or some 6% above the equity's current price, leaving room for a bound in the shares before they must contend with resistance. Meanwhile, analysts are leaning toward the bullish camp, but there is plenty of room for improvement. According to Zacks, 9 of the 20 brokerage firms offering up an opinion on the stock rate it a "hold" or worse. Sure, there are 11 "buy" or better readings levied against SNDK, but there is just as much likelihood at this point of upgrades as there are for downgrades. With last week's solid earnings report, and the stock's continued bullish uptrend, downgrades have become much more unlikely at this point. Keep an eye on the broader market, as a bounce from this week's selling pressure could lend strength to SNDK and help unwind some of this built-up bearish sentiment toward the security. While caution should be exercised as the shares near the 60 level, a breach of this round-number resistance should certainly be seen as a buy signal. 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, because that's the beauty of the leverage that options provide. 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 Volume Calls 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. Best of the Zacks $100,000 Challenge Zacks is conducting a nationwide talent search to find the very best stock pickers. The winner gets a $100,000 dream job with Zacks! . Sign up for free to join the competition, or just read what stocks the leading players are trading on the Zacks Challenge Player Blogs. Best of the Zacks Challenge Player Blogs Here's what the leading players are saying lately: Lilnev2000 (Rank #15 with $157,781) HOW I RESEARCH MINING STOCKS. "THE EXPLORERS" It takes time to research any stock for success. One of the reasons I like mining stocks is the depth of research I'm allowed to do. Now people ask me sometimes how do I get the list of companies that I eventually research. I look on mining dedicated websites, look on suggestion on message boards and from mining newsletter writers. After doing that, the "real" research begins. The first thing I do is. Read More or Comment on this post. MackTheKnife (Rank #6 with $178,863) MTK'S TRADING POST: WHERE'S YOUR DEW LINE? Read More or Comment on this post. Java J >> JAVA'S MARKET MUSINGS #104 << Read More or Comment on this post. Read all the Player Blog posts. 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 Rank 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 55,000 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 to help take definitive action to 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. *Zacks Rank performance is the total return (price changes + dividends) of equal weighted portfolios, consisting of those stocks with the indicated Zacks Rank, assuming zero transaction costs. These returns are not the result of a backtest; these are actual returns since 1988. The stocks in the Zacks Rank portfolios were available to Zacks clients before the beginning of each month (monthly rebalancing). Performance results from 1988 through September 2006 are based on a subset of all Zacks Rank stocks that excludes stocks covered by only one analyst and ADR’s. 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 05/17/2013
| Company Name | Symbol | %Change |
|---|---|---|
| VIASAT INC | VSAT | 19.35% |
| OLD SECOND B | OSBC | 5.76% |
| GAMCO INVEST | GBL | 4.61% |
| CORNING INC | GLW | 4.47% |
| SYNCHRONOSS | SNCR | 4.23% |
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