Excel Maritime Carriers (EXM) – Bear of the Day
We downgrade our recommendation on Excel Maritime Carriers (EXM) to Underperform ahead of its fourth quarter of 2011 financial results. We believe the drybulk shipping industry has a gloomy outlook, facing serious challenges since spot vessel rates collapsed significantly.The sole reason for this dismal condition is the sheer increase of newbuild ships under operation, which resulted in intense price competition. The spot rates of drybulk vessels have fallen to such low levels that even surging commodity prices in the Asian markets have failed to offset the loss of the vessel owners. We believe continuation of this pricing trend will certainly jeopardize the company's future financials.
In the last couple of quarters, Excel Maritime took a severe hit on its time charter equivalent rate. Additionally, its balance sheet is highly leveraged. We do not find any near-term catalyst.
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Zacks Investment Research
Excel Maritime Carriers (EXM) – Bear of the Day
We downgrade our recommendation on Excel Maritime Carriers (EXM) to Underperform ahead of its fourth quarter of 2011 financial results. We believe the drybulk shipping industry has a gloomy outlook, facing serious challenges since spot vessel rates collapsed significantly.The sole reason for this dismal condition is the sheer increase of newbuild ships under operation, which resulted in intense price competition. The spot rates of drybulk vessels have fallen to such low levels that even surging commodity prices in the Asian markets have failed to offset the loss of the vessel owners. We believe continuation of this pricing trend will certainly jeopardize the company's future financials.
In the last couple of quarters, Excel Maritime took a severe hit on its time charter equivalent rate. Additionally, its balance sheet is highly leveraged. We do not find any near-term catalyst.
EXCEL MARITIME (EXM): Free Stock Analysis Report
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Zacks Investment Research
Excel Maritime Carriers (EXM) – Bear of the Day
We downgrade our recommendation on Excel Maritime Carriers (EXM) to Underperform ahead of its fourth quarter of 2011 financial results. We believe the drybulk shipping industry has a gloomy outlook, facing serious challenges since spot vessel rates collapsed significantly.The sole reason for this dismal condition is the sheer increase of newbuild ships under operation, which resulted in intense price competition. The spot rates of drybulk vessels have fallen to such low levels that even surging commodity prices in the Asian markets have failed to offset the loss of the vessel owners. We believe continuation of this pricing trend will certainly jeopardize the company's future financials.
In the last couple of quarters, Excel Maritime took a severe hit on its time charter equivalent rate. Additionally, its balance sheet is highly leveraged. We do not find any near-term catalyst.
EXCEL MARITIME (EXM): Free Stock Analysis Report
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Zacks Investment Research
RadioShack Corp. (RSH) – Bear of the Day
Difficulties for RadioShack Corp. (RSH) persists as the company continues with its disappointing performance. A precipitous decline of the signature and consumer electronics retail businesses, adverse product-mix toward low-margin devices, and a volatile macro-economic scenario in the U.S. are taking a toll on the company's financials.Weaker-than-expected growth of the mobile platform and growing marketing expenses are other near-term concerns. The company provided a tepid outlook for fiscal 2012. In the previous quarter, the U.S. RadioShack company-operated store segment, which is the prime contributor of total revenue, was down 1.4% year over year.
We believe RadioShack lost its market leadership as a high-margin device retailer and is eventually turning out to be a low-cost low-margin device supplier. We do not find any immediate growth catalyst, and therefore downgrade our recommendation to Underperform.
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Zacks Investment Research
RadioShack Corp. (RSH) – Bear of the Day
Difficulties for RadioShack Corp. (RSH) persists as the company continues with its disappointing performance. A precipitous decline of the signature and consumer electronics retail businesses, adverse product-mix toward low-margin devices, and a volatile macro-economic scenario in the U.S. are taking a toll on the company's financials.Weaker-than-expected growth of the mobile platform and growing marketing expenses are other near-term concerns. The company provided a tepid outlook for fiscal 2012. In the previous quarter, the U.S. RadioShack company-operated store segment, which is the prime contributor of total revenue, was down 1.4% year over year.
We believe RadioShack lost its market leadership as a high-margin device retailer and is eventually turning out to be a low-cost low-margin device supplier. We do not find any immediate growth catalyst, and therefore downgrade our recommendation to Underperform.
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Zacks Investment Research
RadioShack Corp. (RSH) – Bear of the Day
Difficulties for RadioShack Corp. (RSH) persists as the company continues with its disappointing performance. A precipitous decline of the signature and consumer electronics retail businesses, adverse product-mix toward low-margin devices, and a volatile macro-economic scenario in the U.S. are taking a toll on the company's financials.Weaker-than-expected growth of the mobile platform and growing marketing expenses are other near-term concerns. The company provided a tepid outlook for fiscal 2012. In the previous quarter, the U.S. RadioShack company-operated store segment, which is the prime contributor of total revenue, was down 1.4% year over year.
We believe RadioShack lost its market leadership as a high-margin device retailer and is eventually turning out to be a low-cost low-margin device supplier. We do not find any immediate growth catalyst, and therefore downgrade our recommendation to Underperform.
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Zacks Investment Research
Loews Corporation (L) – Bear of the Day
We have downgraded Loews Corporation (L) to Underperform from Neutral on the back of weak fourth quarter results. Operating earnings in the fourth quarter lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate owing to lower investment income from limited partnership, increase in insurance reserves for its payout annuity business, lower earnings at Diamond Offshore and weak performance of equity investments.Results at HighMount remained soft due to lower sales volume stemming from lower drilling activity and lower natural gas prices. CNA has substantial exposure to catastrophe losses. Losses in the fourth quarter totaled $208 million, a substantial deterioration from $113 million a year ago.
Our six-month target price of $35.00 per share equates to about 12.1x our 2012 earnings estimate. This price target along with the annual dividend of $0.25 per share implies an expected negative total return of 9.6% over that period.
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Zacks Investment Research
Loews Corporation (L) – Bear of the Day
We have downgraded Loews Corporation (L) to Underperform from Neutral on the back of weak fourth quarter results. Operating earnings in the fourth quarter lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate owing to lower investment income from limited partnership, increase in insurance reserves for its payout annuity business, lower earnings at Diamond Offshore and weak performance of equity investments.Results at HighMount remained soft due to lower sales volume stemming from lower drilling activity and lower natural gas prices. CNA has substantial exposure to catastrophe losses. Losses in the fourth quarter totaled $208 million, a substantial deterioration from $113 million a year ago.
Our six-month target price of $35.00 per share equates to about 12.1x our 2012 earnings estimate. This price target along with the annual dividend of $0.25 per share implies an expected negative total return of 9.6% over that period.
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Zacks Investment Research
Loews Corporation (L) – Bear of the Day
We have downgraded Loews Corporation (L) to Underperform from Neutral on the back of weak fourth quarter results. Operating earnings in the fourth quarter lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate owing to lower investment income from limited partnership, increase in insurance reserves for its payout annuity business, lower earnings at Diamond Offshore and weak performance of equity investments.Results at HighMount remained soft due to lower sales volume stemming from lower drilling activity and lower natural gas prices. CNA has substantial exposure to catastrophe losses. Losses in the fourth quarter totaled $208 million, a substantial deterioration from $113 million a year ago.
Our six-month target price of $35.00 per share equates to about 12.1x our 2012 earnings estimate. This price target along with the annual dividend of $0.25 per share implies an expected negative total return of 9.6% over that period.
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Zacks Investment Research
Guess? Inc. (GES) – Bear of the Day
Guess? Inc.'s (GES) fourth quarter and fiscal 2012 earnings missed year-ago earnings by 5.4% and 1.9%, respectively. Severe austerity measures taken by the European government to combat the debt crisis in the region resulted in reduced spending by consumers there.Though this was offset by the slight increase in per capita income of the North American region, operating margin shrank, owing to higher SG&A as well as promotional activities. Same-store sales also declined in the quarter. In the wholesale segment, reorders for the fall collections as well as spring/summer orders also missed the mark.
Though the valuation on a price-to-book basis looks attractive (trailing 12-month ROE of 25.9%, well above the industry average), our six-month target price of $30.00 per share equates to about 10.0x our earnings estimate for 2012. We retain our Underperform recommendation.
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Zacks Investment Research