Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, BJ Services, Union Pacific Corporation, SanDisk and Sanmina-SCI

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 24, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY - Analyst Report) as the Bull of the Day and BJ Services (BJS - Analyst Report) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Union Pacific Corporation (UNP - Analyst Report), SanDisk (SNDK - Analyst Report) and Sanmina-SCI (SANM - 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:

Growth of mega-blockbuster Plavix is helping Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY - Analyst Report) drive EPS growth up near 16% in 2008. However, patent expirations loom large in Bristol's future starting in 2011 when the Plavix patent expires.

That being said, the company does have an attractive mid-to-late-stage pipeline, and management has been dramatically working to reduce costs and shed less profitable and non-core businesses. We believe the company is an attractive take-over candiate at this level for a larger pharma name such as Sanofi or AstraZeneca. EPS growth through 2011 is near the top ofbig-pharma.

Bear of the Day:

We are reiterating our Sell rating on BJ Services (BJS - Analyst Report) shares to reflect our weak outlook for the North American pressure pumping market.

While the current U.S. rig count is already down more than 50% from its all-time peak in August 2008, we see significant room for further decline in the coming months before the market stabilizes. This expected drop in the rig count will affect demand for pressure pumping services, which will continue to weigh on dayrates and margins into 2010, even as normal demand resumes towards the end of 2009, in our view.

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Union Pacific Reports Q2

Today, Union Pacific Corporation (UNP - Analyst Report) posted 2009 second quarter diluted EPS before non operating items of 78 cents, down 23% year over year. The result was above the consensus of 76 cents but below our estimate of 86 cents, largely reflecting a worse-than expected decline in revenues from the weakening global economy.

Total revenues dropped 28% to $3.3 billion, and compare to the consensus of $3.5 billion and our revenue estimate of $3.6 billion. This reflected a slump in revenue carloads of 22%, while average revenue per car decreased 8%, including a $500 million reduction in fuel surcharge revenues.

SanDisk Turns Profitable

SanDisk’s (SNDK - Analyst Report) second quarter revenue exceeded the company’s expectation of $650.0 million to $725.0 million. The increase was driven by strength in both Product and License & Royalty revenue. Pricing actions across retail and OEM channels, were partially offset by weaker unit sales. Total revenue for the second quarter was $730.6 million, a decrease of 10.5% from $816.0 million reported in the year-ago quarter. This was above our revenue estimate of $715.0 million and consensus estimate of $709.7 million.

Product revenue was $610.4 million, down 11.2% year-over-year, up 4.0% sequentially.. License & Royalty revenue was $120.1 million, down 7.0% year over year and up 68.0% sequentially. Sequential increase in product revenue was driven by a 12.0% increase in ASP per gigabyte. Unit sales of mobile handset memory and USB products are also growing faster than average. The License and Royalty revenue increase is primarily due to higher than anticipated prices of License sales.

Still Cautious on Sanmina

Sanmina-SCI (SANM - Analyst Report) third quarter revenue was in line with consensus, while the EPS beat consensus by $0.01.

Revenue was down 36.5% year over year to $1.21 billion, but was up 1.2% sequentially. Sales for the quarter were in-line with the company’s guidance of $1.175 - $1.250 billion and our estimate of $1.21 billion. End market results were mixed. Communications (44% of total revenue) was down 0.2% sequentially, Multimedia (14%) down 0.8%, Medical (14%) down 4.1%, High-End Enterprise Computing/Storage (15%) up 4.0%, and Industrial/Defense/Aerospace/Automotive (13%) up 11.5%. Although, demand in the June quarter was more stable compared to the March quarter, the company continues to be impacted by a challenging economy.

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

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