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Zacks Equity Research highlights Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) as the Bull of the Day and Pool Corporation (Nasdaq: POOL) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on China Unicom (NYSE: CHU), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL).
Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678.
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Bull of the Day:
The dominant position in the consumer electronic business enables Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) to sustain growth in its topline, expand its store base and boost its market share through acquisitions.
The stores tailor their store merchandising, staffing, marketing and presentation to meet the distinct needs of targeted customers. The company's wide array of assortments, store formats and brand marketing strategies provides an edge over competitors.
These helped Best Buy to post better-than-expected third quarter 2010 results. The quarterly earnings of $0.53 per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.43 and surged 51.4% year-over-year.
Bear of the Day:
We are downgrading our recommendation on the shares of Pool Corporation (Nasdaq: POOL) to Underperform. We are concerned about the pace of recovery, especially in the pool construction/major renovation business.
The stressed economic conditions with high levels of unemployment, foreclosures and a slowdown in the new housing construction market have severely impacted the company's earnings in the past several quarters. We expect this trend to continue and believe consumers will keep postponing upgrades and delaying maintenance. Also, the company's business is susceptible to weather changes.
Nevertheless, the company is unquestionably the leader in the industry. The potential for market growth is also significant and the cost containment initiatives augur well. However, we believe that an increase in demand is needed to reap the full benefits of its expense reduction efforts.
Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:
China Unicom to Launch Uphone
Second-largest Chinese wireless carrier China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) is warming up to carve a niche in the Android cell phone market, as the carrier introduces the first batch of its customized Android handsets (under the "Uphone" moniker) in January 2010. However, the official release date has not been confirmed by the Chinese operator.
China Unicom's Android project is backed by Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Open Handset Alliance ("OHA") program. The company is developing Uphone leveraging its proprietary cell phone operating system (called "UniPlus") based on Google's Android software platform. China Unicom will also launch an application store ("UniStore") that will feature Uphone applications, resembling Apple Inc's (Nasdaq: AAPL) App Store.
The initial Uphone line-up will include Samsung GT-i6500U and Motorola XT701. Samsung GT-i6500U runs on Android 1.5 operating system while Motorola XT701 adopts Android 2.0 operating system. Both these handsets are compatible with WCDMA 3G standard, which has been adopted by China Unicom.
Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=2649.
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.
About the Analyst Blog
Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.
About Zacks Equity Research
Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.
Continuous analyst coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons.
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