Tuesday - August 14, 2007
 Want to view the archive of past issues? Click here. Manage Profit from the Pros subscription: 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 - Air Methods (AIRM) Sun Life Financial, Inc. (SLF) has advanced over 18% year to date and is currently trading near 52-week highs. A breakout above current resistance would be particularly encouraging, adding support to the stock's recent momentum. Read the full analysis on SLF now! Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. (CLMT) recently beat the Street's second-quarter earnings estimate by 14.6% when it posted profits of 94 cents per share. The result represented a 25.3% year-over-year improvement. Consensus earnings estimates for both this year and next year have risen over the past week. On Jul 13, the Board of Directors approved an increase to the company's quarterly cash distribution to 63 cents per unit. This Zacks #1 Rank stock has a price-to-book ratio of 2.4, compared to 4.6 for the market and 2.9 for the industry. Read the full analysis on CLMT 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: Low Price Stocks Many investors prefer stocks priced below $20 because the low prices allow them to accumulate more shares. Fortunately, lower prices do not necessarily mean lower quality. This strategy identifies stocks priced below $20 that are trading at discount valuations and have a Zacks Rank of #1 ("Strong Buy") or #2 ("Buy"). The stocks identified by this search strategy trade at price-to-sales (P/S) multiples of 1.0 or below. The strong Zacks Rank is indicative of positive revisions in earnings estimates. Combining these characteristics can result in high-dollar returns. Here are four stocks that make the grade for the Low Price Stocks Profit Track: Olin Corp. (OLN), a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) company, released second-quarter earnings of 48 cents per share in late July. The result topped the year-prior 45 cents and exceeded the consensus estimate by nearly 31%. OLN meets the criteria for this Profit Track as evidenced by its price-to-sales multiple of 0.45 and earnings per share profitability of $1.52 over the past 12 months. Read the full analysis on OLN now! Phoenix Companies, Inc. (PNX) recently announced second-quarter earnings of 30 cents per share, surpassing the consensus estimate by 20% and outperforming the year-ago total. The company noted that the quarter showed significant positive change from a year ago, with earnings from core operations, and sales of life insurance, annuities and mutual funds all up substantially. PNX offers a price-to-sales multiple of 0.53. During the past 12 months, PNX earned $1.34 per share3. Read the full analysis on PNX now! Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (RJET) recently reported second-quarter operating revenues of $320.3 million, a 12.7% increase on a year-over-year basis. Quarterly earnings of 46 cents per share came in a penny below the year-prior result, but topped the consensus estimate by 5%. The company saw earnings per share profitability of $1.86 over the past 12 months. RJET's price-to-sales multiple stands at 0.65. Read the full analysis on RJET now! REX Stores Corp. (RSC), which closed at $18.60 on Friday, posted fiscal first-quarter earnings of 51 cents per share in early June, more than tripling the previous year's result. RSC fulfills the requirements for this Profit Track as evidenced by its price-to-sales multiple of 0.56 and earnings per share profitability of $1.20 over the past 12 months. Read the full analysis on RSC 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. Using Common Sense to Manage Your Portfolio Kevin Matras goes over a Relative Price Strength strategy for finding winning stocks in all markets. More... 3. ZACKS EQUITY RESEARCH Now that earnings season is starting to dwindle a bit, we wanted to check in with Zacks senior health care industry analyst Chris Kallos, to find out where he stands on several of the companies in his coverage at this time. What is your latest take on companies in your coverage? Is the health care industry looking up? Certainly some aspects of it are. Most recently, I updated my report on Third Wave Technologies (TWTI), which is a company involved in molecular diagnostics. The molecular diagnostics field is experiencing explosive growth, driven by a wave of information emanating from the study of the human genome and the concurrent development of analytical techniques aimed at harnessing this data. An explosion in biomarker research, new applications for testing, and the growing interest of pharmaceutical companies in developing tests bodes well for companies focused on genetic analysis. More. . .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - However, in Third Wave's particular case, the company's customer base is highly concentrated. Dependence on a small number of customers for its revenues increases the risk of earnings volatility. We also believe TWTI's limited operating history in molecular diagnostics and fledgling status will add further to potential share price volatility. So we have a Hold on the stock at this time. What else have you been working on recently? Well, keeping with the new biomed technology theme for a moment, I also recently issued a report on Micromet (MITI). This company is focused on the research and development using proprietary technology and commercialization of novel antibody-based drug products for the treatment and control of cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. We remain positive with the company's strategic direction, and clinical news flow to date, and retain our Hold recommendation at current levels. However, given the limited financial history of the current merged entity, we expect share price performance to remain volatile until investors can compare prior period performance on a like-for-like basis. How have the hospitals been doing lately? That seems to depend on which region we're talking about. We recently worked on a Hold report for Community Health Systems (CYH). Our cautious stance on this company is based on the fact that under prevailing economic uncertainties, service providers in rural areas are more susceptible to volume contraction on account of lower demands than their urban counterparts. In addition, we remain concerned with the company's bad debt expenses. The rise in bad debt expenses is attributed to the significantly higher self-pay patients (those who are not covered under health insurance plans) in the company's business mix. Then again, Community Health Systems' strategy of targeting rural markets has reduced competition from other for-profit hospitals and outpatient specialty service providers, and increased pricing power due to the lower penetration of managed care providers in these markets. More specifically, CYH has historically targeted rural markets with high growth populations, where it can achieve sole or predominant provider status. To read the complete Analyst Interview, click here. Chris Kallos is a senior health care analyst for Zacks Equity Research. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Real-time market insights from Zacks Equity Research Analysts. Stocks featured recently include Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS), CDC Corp. (CHINA), FPL Group (FPL) and Inspire Pharmaceuticals (ISPH). Get their latest posts: click here. DIRECTV Group (DTV) - Poised for Growth. For full Zacks research report, click here. Quilmes Industrial (LQE) - Limited Upside. For full Zacks research report, click here. The Week of Aug 13 - Aug 17 Listen to the audio podcast for Earnings Trends through Zacks' NEW Audio Feature:
Earnings Gains Widespread 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. Last week, Elizabeth Harrow took a look at the Zacks Put/Call Ratio Greater than 1.0 filter. This week, let's shift gears and take a look at the Zacks Unusually High Volume filter, focusing on call activity. This filter takes a look at the option volume from the previous day (which is Thursday, August 9 in this case) and scans for unusually high activity. We are looking at the unusually high call volume in comparison to put volume. This filter can be valuable, as it could signal a high degree of optimism (or pessimism) building toward a certain stock. The company that caught my attention this week, due to its heavy call volume in comparison to put volume, was Ciena (CIEN). According to Hoover's, CIEN produces transport and switching equipment designed to increase the capacity of long-distance fiber-optic networks by transmitting multiple light signals simultaneously over the same circuit. I will give you a second to stop your head from spinning before continuing . . . time's up! CIEN also sells transport systems for metro and enterprise wide-area networks, as well as broadband access products that enable communications companies to deliver Internet protocol services. CIEN serves telecom service providers, cable companies, large enterprises, and government entities. Before we dive any deeper into technicals and sentiment for CIEN, 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 Analysis(R) 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. Before looking at CIEN specifically, 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. Technically, CIEN is battling overhead resistance at the 40 level, which rejected the shares in early 2006. The previous rejection sent the shares retreating to the support of their 20-month moving average. This trendline, in conjunction with its 10-month counterpart, now looks ready to finally push the stock through the 40 level. CIEN's recent price action has been solid, as the stock tries to wade its way through the recent market volatility. It appears that the stock will have the support of its 10-week and 20-week moving averages to try and help battle higher. While these trendlines have helped escort the stock higher in the past, they are currently at their highest points in the past three years. Watch for these moving averages to try and lend a hand in CIEN's advance. In CIEN's quest to break through the 40 level, it may be able to rely on a bit of shift in sentiment. Options players are stacked up on the bearish side when it comes to the fiber-optic firm. Currently, CIEN's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.91 is higher than 92% of those taken during the past 52 weeks. This high percentile ranking suggests that we could see buying pressure creep into the picture and help push the shares higher. Another potential upside driver is a short-covering rally, as 12.3% of CIEN's float is sold short. This accumulation of bearish bets could easily convert into upside momentum should any good news chase these bears from their short positions. Perhaps the best potential upside driver is CIEN's analyst coverage. According to Zacks, CIEN earns two "strong buy" ratings, two "buy" ratings, 10 "holds," and one "strong sell." This configuration leaves the door wide open for upgrades, which could help push the stock higher. 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, and 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: Beris (Rank #21 with $151,302.00) SOME STOCKS TO CONSIDER, EVEN IF SHORT-TERM: CATCH 'EM BOUNCING Read More or Comment on this post. DreyerD MOST TRADERS AND INVESTORS ARE AT A LOSS WHEN THE MARKET MOVES DOWN Read More or Comment on this post. TheInstitutional IT'S SHOW TIME! IT IS GOING TO HIT NOW AND BADLY! 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 06/18/2013
| Company Name | Symbol | %Change |
|---|---|---|
| STAAR SURGIC | STAA | 10.98% |
| DTS INC | DTSI | 6.89% |
| ANIKA THERAP | ANIK | 6.04% |
| LUMOS NETWOR | LMOS | 5.70% |
| INSTEEL IND | IIIN | 5.28% |
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