Tuesday - October 16, 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% 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 - Hoku Scientific (HOKU) Monsanto (MON) announced it has increased its investment in Mendel Biotechnology, Inc., one of the company's key collaborators on agriculture technologies. Monsanto and Mendel have worked together to support the discovery and development of new technologies for agriculture since 1997. Read the full analysis on MON now! Since CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF) was first presented as a Value pick on Mar 1, the company has returned an impressive 92%. The consensus earnings estimate for this year currently resides at $4.64, marking a nine-cent improvement when compared to the consensus of a month earlier. Profit forecasts for next year have risen 65 cents to $4.74 over the same period of time. Read the full analysis on CF 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: Growth and Income This screen looks for stocks that are paying dividend yields of greater than 8% along with other attractive fundamental attributes. Although this screen is based on a long-term and lower risk approach to investing, it has a history of outperforming the S&P 500. Here are four stocks that make the grade for the Growth and Income Profit Track: Centerline Holding Co. (CHC) declared a third-quarter dividend of 42 cents per share in mid-September. The dividend is payable on Nov 14, 2007 to shareholders of record as of Sep 28, 2007. Centerline Holding Co. meets the requirements for this Profit Track with a current dividend yield of 10.90%. Read the full analysis on CHC now! Frontline Ltd. (FRO), a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) company, recently declared an ordinary dividend of $1.50 per share and an extraordinary dividend of $1.75 per share, totaling $3.25.
The record date was Oct 12, 2007, and the dividend will be paid on or about Oct 24, 2007. The company satisfies the criteria for this Profit Track with a current dividend yield of 13.47%. Frontline is scheduled to release results for the third quarter on Nov 30, 2007. Read the full analysis on FRO now! HRPT Properties Trust (HRP) offers a current dividend yield of 8.22%. The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of
21 cents per common share. The dividend will be paid on or about Nov 21, 2007 to shareholders of record as of Oct 23, 2007. In early August, HRP reported second-quarter funds from operations (FFO) of 29 cents per share. The result was in line with analysts' expectations. Read the full analysis on HRP now! MCG Capital Corporation (MCGC) sports a current dividend of 12.14%. The company announced results for the second quarter and declared a third-quarter dividend in late July. The dividend, in the amount of 44 cents per share, will be paid on Oct 30, 2007 to shareholders of record as of Aug 23, 2007.
Second-quarter earnings per share increased on a year-over-year basis and were nearly 15% ahead of the consensus estimate. Read the full analysis on MCGC 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”. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Kevin Matras outlines a strategy for how to trade the Zacks Rank in a very practical manner for almost anyone's portfolio. More... 3. ZACKS EQUITY RESEARCH After a mixed second quarter performance in the machinery industry, we checked with Zacks senior machinery industry analyst Mario Ricchio to see if he expects third quarter numbers will improve. He was able to give us both an industry overview and a couple key stock recommendations. Ahead of third quarter earnings, what are your expectations for machinery companies in your coverage? Our expectations are very high for the third quarter. We anticipate the median third quarter EPS growth rate to accelerate to 17% from last quarter's rate of 10%. Strong international sales volumes, increased pricing power, and a weak U.S. dollar should fuel the profit gains. The difference this time around, as opposed to other machinery cycles, is weak U.S. machine orders have failed to lead to a series of downward earnings revisions. More. . .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - It's really a story of a booming global economy carrying the day. Since the companies we cover, in some cases, have more than 50% of earnings from international operations, they are expected to weather the storm called U.S. housing. Unfortunately, the good news on earnings appears priced into the sector. The average stock has seen price appreciation of more than 10% since the Fed rate cut last month. Given the run, we suggest investors avoid adding to positions before earnings come out, since traders that bought on the rumor of strong earnings results are likely to sell on the fact. What effect, if any, do you expect the global economy to have on the machinery group as a whole? The strength in the global economy is the biggest factor behind our positive view on the group. Machine orders are expected to increase at a double-digit rate for industrial, mining and energy-related equipment. Foreign companies and governments alike are flush with cash from the multi-year surge in commodity prices. They are reinvesting the flow of funds back into infrastructure, new construction and mining projects that pull more resources out of the ground. So, in effect, what were seeing is a commodity boom feeding into general construction spending globally. When we look at our forecast, machinery companies' sales on average are expected to increase more than 10% in Europe, 20% from the Middle East, 20% in Latin America and at least 10% in Asia, with overwhelming strength coming from China. We expect the strength in International sales to offset a slowdown in the U.S. market. It's truly a bifurcated global economy. How does this bifurcated global economy affect your outlook on Ingersoll Rand's sale of Bobcat? Well, it makes a lot of sense. Ingersoll Rand (IR) has spent the last couple years transitioning from a heavy machinery group into a diversified industrials company. The sale of Bobcat is another step along the way of realizing that goal. We had expected a $4 billion sales tag, so we were surprised South Korea's Doosan Infracor paid almost $5 billion at this point in the U. S residential construction cycle. The company will be left with three business platforms -- global climate control, industrial and security markets- that carry a higher level of earnings predictability and a lower level of market cyclicality. More importantly, the company increases its international sales exposure and leaves the headwind of U.S housing behind it. To read the complete Analyst Interview, click here. Mario Ricchio is a senior analyst covering the machinery and homebuilding industries for Zacks Equity Research. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Real-time market insights from Zacks Equity Research Analysts. Stocks featured recently include Bausch & Lomb (BOL), Unisys (UIS), Entergy (ETR) and PeopleSupport (PSPT). Get their latest posts: click here. Amdocs Ltd. (DOX) - Wide-Reaching Strength. For full Zacks research report, click here. 3Com Corp. (COMS) - Buyout Risks Emerge. For full Zacks research report, click here. Listen to the audio podcast for Earnings Preview through Zacks' Audio Feature. The Week of Oct 15 - Oct 19 Listen to the audio podcast for Earnings Trends through Zacks' NEW Audio Feature. Analysts Cutting as Earnings Season Gets Underway 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, we gave the High Open Interest Put Position filter a workout. This week, let's take a look at the Zacks Unusually High Volume filter, with an eye toward call activity. This filter takes a look at the option volume from the previous day (in this case, Thursday, October 11) 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. Salesforce.com (CRM) appears on today's list, as 18,750 calls crossed the tape on this equity yesterday. This figure is more than three times higher than CRM's average call volume of 6,100. It's possible that some positive analyst attention sparked option traders' interest in CRM calls yesterday, as Lazard Capital initiated coverage of the shares with a "buy" recommendation. 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 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 CRM 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. By all technical accounts, CRM is a strong performer. The shares of the company - which provides on-demand Customer- Relationship Management services, in case you were curious about the ticker - have been on a tear recently. CRM didn't simply bounce back after the minor dip it endured during the summer's broad-market pullback; it raced higher. The stock's recent precipitous climb has been underlined by support from its 10-day moving average. This short-term trendline has helped CRM stair-step higher, forming a series of higher lows and higher lows during the past month. This is hardly the first leg of CRM's uptrend, though. The stock has beat a steady path higher since 2004. Support from the stock's long-term 10-month and 20-month moving averages have guided the equity to its current heights. Since the 20- month trendline first appeared at the start of 2006, CRM has not closed a single month below this dynamic duo. As a monthly chart reveals, however, the equity's recent race up the charts has left it gapped above these support levels. The potential for a pullback to these long-term trendlines is something CRM bulls should keep in mind. A dip lower may not necessarily portend the beginning of a slump for the shares, but notice the period of sideways movement CRM entered between January and August of this year. The equity trended almost due east until it collided with support from these trendlines, at which point it had gathered the momentum to cruise higher again. Meanwhile, our sentiment indicators reveal that there's plenty of skeptical sentiment surrounding this uptrending equity to provide fuel for future gains. Despite the heavy call adds yesterday, CRM's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio checks in at 1.28, as puts outnumber calls among near-term options. This ratio is higher than 71% of other such readings taken during the past year, revealing a bearish slant from the speculative crowd. Plus, short interest accounts for more than 9% of the stock's available float. It would take nearly a week's worth of trading days for all these bearish bets to be repurchased at CRM's average daily volume, which could prove to be an ample source of short-covering support in the event of some positive developments (such as yesterday's brokerage endorsement). Short interest decreased during the latest reporting period by more than 5%, revealing that some bears have already been forced to capitulate to the stock's rally. A continued unwinding of these pessimistic positions could ensure that CRM's gains continue. However, the stock's top-heavy analyst ratings are a point of concern. Lazard was hardly the first broker to jump on CRM's bandwagon; Zacks confirms that the equity has garnered 13 "buys," 10 of which are "strong buys." These bullish ratings outnumber the nine "holds" and two "sells" that CRM has to its name, which means that the potential for downgrades is relatively higher. Any downgrades could result in selling pressure for the shares, temporarily putting the brakes on its run higher. Of course, those bearish rankings also leave room for future upgrades, which could be a boon. 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: Lilnev2000 (Rank #73 with $169,168 GOLD APPROACHING $760, YAMANA GOLD INKS DEAL (AUY) With gold approaching $760, explorers and producers around the world are smiling. One producer that is smiling very big this morning is Yamana Gold, who found out that nearly 80% of Meridian Gold Shareholders tendered their shares to the merger... Yamana Gold is my favorite gold/copper producer because of... All of those factors will keep China's growth strong in the short and long term. Now an interesting twist is that China is preparing... Read More or Comment on this post. Dreyerd (Rank #91 with $163,826) PHAZAR SHARES JUMP ON EARNINGS (ANTP) ANTP was one of last week's stocks off the Weekly Top 5. I don't recommend taking new positions in front of earnings. I will start to check more closely now that we are in earnings season. This one worked out for a 20% gain in a week, but the risk to reward is nearly the same with big news announcements so I generally suggest staying away from new entries around earnings and other news. Here is the press release from last Friday... Read More or Comment on this post. RebelPOW (Rank #30 with $190,261) IS SHORT-SELLING OBSOLETE? 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. 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. | |||||||||
- Latest News
- Most Popular
- Hitting Home Runs & Grand Slams, Not Loud Outs
- RTI: Do Stocks Tank When QE Ends?
- 3 Top-Ranked Consumer ETFs to Buy Now
- This Week's Aggressive Growth Stocks
- Who Wants to Keep "Too Big to Fail" Alive?
- Debt-Ceiling Alarm Bell Tolls
- Avoid These 3 Eurozone ETFs This Summer
- RTI: When Will We Finally See a Pullback?
- Top Stocks with Big Potential Catch-Up Moves
- AWS 5/22: Will Bernanke Show His Hand?
- PFP 5/22: Singular Stock Focus Continues
Recent Quotes
| No Recent Quote currently available |
My Portfolio
|
My Portfolio Tracker One of the most important steps you can take today is to set up your portfolio tracker on Zacks.com. Once you do, you'll be notified of major events affecting your stocks and/or funds with daily email alerts. Set yours up today. |
Zacks #1 Stocks on the Move 05/22/2013
| Company Name | Symbol | %Change |
|---|---|---|
| ALLIANCE FIB | AFOP | 9.31% |
| SONIC FOUNDR | SOFO | 7.77% |
| TRI TECH HOL | TRIT | 6.62% |
| A M R CP | AAMRQ | 4.52% |
| FLOWERS FOOD | FLO | 4.31% |
Quick Links
Resources
Client Support
Zacks Research is Reported On:
Zacks Investment Research
is an A+ Rated BBB
Accredited Business.
Copyright 2013 Zacks Investment Research
At the center of everything we do is a strong commitment to independent research and sharing its profitable discoveries with investors. This dedication to giving investors a trading advantage led to the creation of our proven Zacks Rank stock-rating system. Since 1986 it has nearly tripled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +26% per year. These returns cover a period from 1986-2011 and were examined and attested by Baker Tilly, an independent accounting firm.
Visit performance for information about the performance numbers displayed above.
NYSE and AMEX data is at least 20 minutes delayed. NASDAQ data is at least 15 minutes delayed.