For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL –September 20, 2010 – Zacks Equity Research highlights:Avnet (AVT) as the Bull of the Day and Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Fujifilm Holdings Corporation (FUJIY, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and Infosys Technologies Ltd. (INFY).
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Bull of the Day:
Avnet (AVT) revived its business quite well in fiscal 2010 after a disastrous 2009, driven by strong global demand. Business began to recover in the first quarter of fiscal 2010 as end demand improved and participants began to realize inventory in the technology supply chain at unsustainably low levels.
This propelled growth for the rest of fiscal 2010. Revenue is back to pre-recession levels and Asia continues to contribute the larger portion of the total. Asia was less impacted by the downturn and began its recovery phase before the western regions.
The recent acquisition of Bell Microproducts should further expand the scale of operations and provide cross-selling opportunities. We maintain our Outperform recommendation.
Bear of the Day:
We are downgrading our recommendation on Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK) to Underperform. The company's second-quarter operating earnings came in just a penny ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate, primarily helped by lower interest expense, partially offset by an increase in provision for loan losses and a lower interest margin.
Though a solid business model and strong capital levels are upsides, we believe that the elevated levels of credit metrics remain a concern for the company. The recent regulatory moves are also expected to pull down the company's bottom line.
Moreover, the low interest rate environment, anticipated to continue in the upcoming quarters, would restrict the company's margin, thereby dampening investors' appetite for this stock.
Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:
Fuji Outperforms
We maintain our Outperform recommendation on the ADR of Fujifilm Holdings Corporation (FUJIY based on its strong business and expansion strategy into wider markets with innovative products. Further, Fuji's cost and expense reduction techniques and its acquisition strategy are expected to boost both top-line and bottom-line results.
Fuji has been continuously developing innovative products that applied photographic film-related technologies in the medical (X-ray diagnosis), printing, electronic, imaging and magnetic materials field. Meanwhile, the company has penetrated overseas markets establishing sales bases in larger areas like United States, Europe and Asia, which are expected to provide greater momentum to the stock.
Fuji's various structural reforms are yet another reason to Outperform. Recently, the company introduced ROA-based indicators to improve efficiency of its asset and capital utilization by reducing fixed assets and inventories. Management expects its ROA to more than double from 2.1% currently to approximately 5.0% in fiscal 2012. ROE is expected to be around 7.0% at the end of fiscal 2010. The restructuring programs would prove to be quite beneficial for the company in the long term considering clear signs of recovery in each business segment.
Fuji has also initiated cost and expense reduction techniques to improve its profitability. During fiscal 2010, the company recorded a 12% decrease in total cost and expenses. New high-quality products at much lower costs will prove profitable in future.
Thus, for fiscal 2011, management is expecting a 9% increase in revenue and anticipates the company to report net income of $667 million from a loss of $413.2 million in fiscal 2010.
IBM Launches New Software
A leading Information Technology (IT) solutions provider International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)announced a new software portfolio that enriches the overall Web experience.
The software focuses on improving communication channels between organizations and their clients over the Web and through mobile devices. The portfolio comprises analytics, social software and commerce facilities that aid organizations in retaining their current customers as well as targeting potential customers successfully.
With the rapid increase in use of Internet (approximately 28.7% of global population), organizations are using more and more online services to entice customers. Online transactions continue to grow at a rapid space. Currently, eight out of ten customers shop online at least twice a week.
According to the research firm eMerketer, the total number of mobile Internet users is expected to reach 134 million by 2013 as a result of increasing usage of smartphones.
According to another research firm ABI, there will be 20 times more data and 40 times more mobile transactions by 2015. The firm expects mobile online shopping to triple annually and rise to $119.0 billion in the same timeframe. Organizations irrespective of their size and scale are finding it difficult to cope with this tremendous growth.
IBM is expanding its portfolio of solutions to enable organizations to improve their market presence on the Web and use it as their primary communication channel to reach customers. IBM is teaming up with its business partners such as Ascendant Solutions Inc., Gemini Corp., Infosys Technologies Ltd. (INFY), Ixion, and Perficient Inc. (PRFT) to achieve this expansion.
The new software named IBM Customer Experience Suite is expected to create a simple and dynamic Web environment for organizations. This will help customers easily navigate and interact either through a mobile device or a conventional online website.
The new software encourages organizations to use blogs, chat forums, videos and social marketing to deliver a personalized service, thereby resolving customer issues in a very short span time.
IBM Customer Experience Suite software comprises analytics, social networking, Web content management, portal, mashups and mobile features. This software supports online conversation between different communities and allows business owners to market their products by using different marketing tools such as campaigns and surveys that are delivered through multiple channels.
We anticipate that the new software will broaden IBM's client base, particularly in the online advertising and marketing sector over the long term. This will help IBM generate higher revenues.
Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5507.
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AVNET (AVT): Free Stock Analysis Report
FUJI PHOTO FILM (FUJIY): Free Stock Analysis Report
HUDSON CITY BCP (HCBK): Free Stock Analysis Report
INTL BUS MACH (IBM): Free Stock Analysis Report
INFOSYS TEC-ADR (INFY): Free Stock Analysis Report
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