For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – March 26, 2012 – 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 Darden Restaurant (
DRI), KB Home ( KBH), Nike (
NKE), Micron Technology (MU) and Monster
Worldwide, Inc. ( MWW).
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Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst
Blog:
China Worries Sending
Market Lower?
The market appears to have lost some of its stride in the last
few days as China growth worries have come to the fore, even as
readings of the U.S. economy continue to show resilience. But
stocks don’t move in one direction only, and a period of rest and
recuperation following the impressive sprint from the October lows
shouldn’t be such a huge surprise.
Today’s trading action may not be much different from what we
have been seeing lately, though the pronounced downward bias of the
last few days may not be as apparent today given the absence of any
China headlines. The February New Home sales data on deck for
release a little later may also help sentiment a bit. But the
‘weather question’ will most likely undercut a positive surprise in
today’s housing numbers.
New Home Sales are expected to have increased again in February,
the fifth such gain in the last six months. These gains corroborate
favorable indicators elsewhere in the sector from Housing Starts
and Permit to Builder Sentiment. But this year’s unseasonably warm
winter has stoked skepticism with the housing ‘green shoots.’ In
fact, some are going to the extent of questioning even the labor
market gains of the last few months, giving weather the credit for
a fair share of the improvement.
This debate is unlikely to be settled in the February and March
data, but will get sorted out as the Spring data rolls out. I am
not buying into the weather-is-driving-the-improvement narrative,
but will nevertheless keep an open mind and let actual data settle
the argument for me. In the meantime, I think it’s only fair to
credit the economy for all positive data and not weather.
In corporate news, we got an earnings and revenue surprise from
Darden Restaurant ( DRI), the operator of Olive
Garden and Red Lobster chains, this morning. The strength this
quarter reflected the same-store sales growth at Olive Garden,
which has been struggling for a while now. As with the economic
data above, many will likely question whether the Olive Garden
improvement resulted from the measures management had put in place
or purely due to favorable weather.
Homebuilder KB Home ( KBH) came out with a
narrower than expected loss, but its order book turned out to be
weaker than expected. Nike ( NKE) and
Micron Technology (MU) reported after the close on
Thursday, with the sneaker maker swooshing past expectations while
the chipmaker coming up short.
Monster May Sell Off
According to recent news from Reuters, management at
Monster Worldwide, Inc. ( MWW) might sell a part
-- or all -- of its business.
The news led to a 2.04% jump in share price in regular trading
to close at $9.49 on March 22, 2012.
Monster had earlier retained Key Partners LLC and BofA
Merrill Lynch as its financial advisors in connection with its
review of strategic alternatives done previously.
The company is facing tough times for quite some time now and is
considering strategic alternatives to boost shareholder value in
the coming months to combat the same. Competition has intensified
over the last few years in the online employment advertising
market, which in our view has resulted in Monster losing share.
Though Monster once had a dominant position, there are now
several national competitors (i.e., CareerBuilder) as well as niche
sites (i.e., Dice, JobsintheMoney, TheLadders, SnagAJob, etc.).
Many of the cutting-edge recruiters have reduced their use of job
boards in favor of alternative social media sites, such as LinkedIn
and Twitter.
The near-term priorities for the management includes
executing on its share buyback program along with returning excess
cash to shareholders, focusing on incremental growth opportunity
with SeeMore and Government Solutions and implementing $100 million
cost savings initiative to increase marketing campaign and sales
efforts.
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DARDEN RESTRNT (DRI): Free Stock Analysis Report
KB HOME (KBH): Free Stock Analysis Report
MICRON TECH (MU): Free Stock Analysis Report
MONSTER WWD INC (MWW): Free Stock Analysis Report
NIKE INC-B (NKE): Free Stock Analysis Report
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