Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Starwood Hotels, Marriott International, American Public Education, Strayer Education and Devry Inc.

Chicago, IL – July 6, 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: Starwood Hotels (HOT), Marriott International (MAR), American Public Education (APEI), Strayer Education (STRA) and Devry Inc. (DV).

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Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Hotel Metrics Stay Down

We have been negative on the lodging sector for months, as we have maintained that investors have been too optimistic regarding the chances for a second-half recovery in the group.

Earlier this week, an analyst at a major Wall Street brokerage firm lowered their outlook on the group to negative, and lowered their rating on shares of Starwood Hotels (HOT) and Marriott International (MAR) to Underweight.

We have had Sell ratings on these shares for some time, and as we recently noted, the shares have begun to pull back after rallying along with the broad market for approximately three months.

As the challenges facing the group going forward become more obvious, we anticipate that more investors will realize that a near-term recovery in operating fundamentals is highly unlikely. As a result, we expect to see more pressure on the shares of lodging companies in the coming months.

Bullish on Online Education

The outlook for the post-secondary education industry, especially the online segment, is positive. This industry is comprised of traditional public and private traditional colleges and universities, as well as a number of for-profit institutions offering online programs, such as American Public Education (APEI), Strayer Education (STRA) and Devry Inc. (DV). Most of these colleges and universities target working adults in addition to traditional 18- to 24-year-old students.

The U.S. market for post-secondary education is large, growing and highly fragmented. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that approximately 61 million working adults in the United States do not have more than high school education and approximately 32 million adults have some college experience but no degree. In addition, adults represent 39% of total post-secondary education enrollment.

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Read the full analyst report on HOT

Read the full analyst report on MAR

Read the full analyst report on APEI

Read the full analyst report on STRA

Read the full analyst report on DV