Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Research In Motion, Canon, American Electric Power, General Electric and First Solar

Chicago, IL – June 30, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Research In Motion (RIMM) as the Bull of the Day and Canon (CAJ) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on American Electric Power (AEP), General Electric (GE) and First Solar (FSLR).

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:

Research In Motion (RIMM), the manufacturer of BlackBerry'smart-phone devices, continues with robust financial performance in spite of facing a global economic recession and an extremely competitive industry.

The company's first quarter (ended May 30) financial results were above our expectations. Highend Blackberry handsets experienced significant market traction as the company maintains the momentum of net new subscriber additions. Sequential improvement of gross margin is another positive factor.

We expect the smart-phone device market to gain further momentum should economic conditions improve and as demand for portable mobile access remains firm on a global basis.

Bear of the Day:

We believe the sharp appreciation of the yen is eroding Canon's (CAJ) revenue and profits.

Canon's first-quarter 2009 results were mixed with revenue below expectations while earnings slightly exceeding our expectation. The company expects to improve profitability through product launches and cost cutting efforts. As a result CAJ raised its earnings forecast for the full year 2009, still below 2008 level.

We expect revenue in 2009 to be hurt by weak consumer spending and believe the company will struggle to meet expectations in fiscal 2009. We maintain our estimates for the full year 2009.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Who Wins From Cap & Trade?

On Friday, the House narrowly approved the Waxman-Markey bill. This legislation will, for the first time, put a (indirect) price on CO2 emissions.

Most of the permits will be given away at first rather than being auctioned off. This will greatly ease the transition, much to the benefit to coal oriented utilities like American Electric Power (AEP).

The bill will require that by 2020, that 20% of all U.S. electric power come from renewable sources. The means that the Wind Turbine unit should be one of General Electric's (GE) best performing divisions going forward. However, I'm not sure that it will be enough to totally move the needle on a firm the size of GE. Still, GE will get a benefit, and is a fairly conservative way to play it.

More direct plays like First Solar (FSLR) are not exactly cheap, which makes them more risky. However, the potential upside is also huge.

Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5507.

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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Read the full analyst report on RIMM

Read the full analyst report on CAJ

Read the full analyst report on AEP

Read the full analyst report on GE

Read the full analyst report on FSLR