Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Biogen Idec, Eastman Chemical Company, DeVry Inc., General Motors and McGraw-Hill.

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – June 3, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Biogen Idec (BIIB - Analyst Report) as the Bull of the Day and Eastman Chemical Company (EMN - Analyst Report) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on DeVry Inc. (DV - Analyst Report), General Motors (GM) and McGraw-Hill (MHP - Analyst Report).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Biogen Idec (BIIB - Analyst Report) posted solid results in the first quarter of 2009, despite the slowdown in Tysabri sales due to fears of PML. We think the Biogen core business will remain strong over the next several quarters. Tysabri prescriptions are showing an improvement and we believe will resume their previous pace shortly.

In the meantime, the name is significantly under-valued and would be a very attractive takeout candidate for a large-cap pharmaceutical company looking for a great phase III pipeline. We expect 2009 to be an eventful year on the pipeline front.

As investors become more comfortable with both Tysabri trends and emerging pipeline, we believe shares will recover back into the low $60's. At today's price, the name is too attractive to ignore.

Bear of the Day:

Eastman Chemical Company (EMN - Analyst Report) is engaged in the manufacture and sale of chemicals, plastics and fibers. Based in Kingsport, Tennessee, the company has 12 manufacturing sites in the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific, supplying products throughout the world.

Eastman is witnessing rising raw material prices and a declining demand for its products. The company reported a 98% drop in earnings in the first quarter of 2009 driven by lower prices and volumes. Sales were considerably down in all the major segments.

Lack of free cash flow, PET capacity increases, coupled with slowing growth and PET industry overcapacity, force us to rate the stock a Sell with a target of $34.00.

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DeVry Replaces GM on S&P

Standard & Poor's announced yesterday that DeVry Inc. (DV - Analyst Report) will replace General Motors (GM) in the S&P 500 stock index after the close today. Obviously, the bankruptcy filing motivated the Committee to remove GM from the index, but the decision to add DeVry has many implications.

First, the S&P 500 index is owned and maintained by Standard & Poor's, which is a division of McGraw-Hill (MHP - Analyst Report). A Committee selects new companies for inclusion in the S&P 500 when there is a vacancy. The Committee seeks stocks that will provide fair representation of the many diverse industries in the U.S economy. The stocks should also meet the criteria of being large capitalization and having sufficient liquidity.

The addition of DeVry should not come as a surprise. The stock was in the S&P MidCap 400, a fertile ground from which the Committee chooses new additions to the large-cap S&P 500 stock index. DeVry's stock has a market capitalization over $3 billion and has performed well since entering the S&P MidCap 400 index, rising from a mid-capitalization to large-capitalization stock.

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About the Bull and Bear of the Day

Every day, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research select two stocks that are likely to outperform (Bull) or underperform (Bear) the markets over the next 3-6 months.

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