Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Avalon Bay, Boston Properties, Carter's, O'Reilly and 99 Cents Only

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – June 3, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Avalon Bay (AVB - Analyst Report), Boston Properties (BXP - Analyst Report), Carter's (CRI - Snapshot Report), O'Reilly (ORLY - Analyst Report) and 99 Cents Only (NDN - Snapshot Report).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

REITs Continue Their Run

Equity REITs are now trading closer to the value of their assets. Although as a group, REITs are still trading below net asset value. Although, underlying fundamentals cannot be ignored. 1Q results among companies we cover were generally unspectacular and operations are deteriorating in all major property types: apartments, office, retail, and lodging.

Most property indexes still show large y/y declines in property values and commercial loan delinquencies are increasing every quarter. As property values fall, so does the value of property REITs, although the selloff last that began last year was an overreaction and values were brought down to unrealistic levels.

We think the REIT rally has more room to run -- not much, though. Fundamentals cannot be ignored, and we expect more companies than not to lower estimates over the next couple of quarters. Two larger-cap names we still like are Avalon Bay (AVB - Analyst Report) and Boston Properties (BXP - Analyst Report). The yields of both companies are below average but appear safe, and both have low relative leverage.

Retail - Q1 Recap, Q2 Outlook

For most of the industry, sales were down significantly year-over-year. But the decline in sales was at a slower rate than in the second half of 2008.

Retailers that actually increased sales were Carter's (CRI - Snapshot Report), which sells baby apparel; O'Reilly (ORLY - Analyst Report), which sells auto parts; and 99 Cents Only (NDN - Snapshot Report), which is a discount store. The retail stocks that outperformed within the group were the lowest priced stocks with the worst-looking balance sheets. The laggards were the defensive retailers like supermarkets and wholesale clubs and those with the best balance sheets.

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