Zacks Upgrades and Revisions Strategy Highlights: Armor Holdings, Alliance Resource Partners LP, Lennar Corporation, and Progressive Corp

Business Wire, June 30, 2005

CHICAGO -- Earnings estimate revisions are the most powerful force impacting stock prices. Couple that with the proven benefits of upgrades in ratings from brokerage firms and you have a strategy with a compounded return of over 436% over the last few years. Four stocks meeting this screen's exclusive criteria as of June 29, 2005 are: Armor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AH), Alliance Resource Partners LP (NASDAQ:ARLP), Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN), and Progressive Corp. (NYSE:PGR). View the entire list of stocks for the Upgrades and Revisions Profit Track at http://at.zacks.com/?id=1844

Here are four companies that meet the following Upgrades and Revisions Profit Track:

Armor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AH) believes that fiscal 2005 is shaping up to be a record year. The company seems to be on course with first-quarter earnings of 87 cents, which surprised analysts by jumping ahead of the consensus estimate by almost 13%. The first-quarter result, which was announced in late April, also outpaced last year's 42 cents. AH's track record of almost 34% earnings growth over the past five years provides further proof that it is a solid company.

Alliance Resource Partners LP (NASDAQ:ARLP) is a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) company. In late April, the company reported record first-quarter financial results with earnings of $2.02 per share, easily beating the consensus estimate by almost 63% and improving on last year's 97 cents. ARLP also sports an impressive five-year earnings growth record of approximately 77%.

Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) recently surprised Wall Street when it announced fiscal second-quarter earnings of $1.55 per share that beat the consensus estimate by about 18%. The company mentioned that its record results were driven by its ability to continue to capitalize on favorable pricing conditions within various strategic homebuilding markets in which it operates. It is not surprising that LEN, another Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy), has managed almost 32% earnings growth during the last five years.

Progressive Corp. (NYSE:PGR), also a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy), is an auto insurance company and a writer of auto insurance through independent agents. From a historical standpoint, it is hard to argue with the company's success as it has experienced almost 132% earnings growth over the past five years. More recently, PGR posted a 16% year-over-year net income increase for the month of May. In mid-April, the company announced first-quarter earnings of $2.04, exceeding the consensus estimate by more than 10%.

Discover all the current stocks currently on the Upgrades and Revisions Profit Track at: http://at.zacks.com/?id=1869

About Profit Tracks

What is a "Profit Track"? Each one is a successful stock picking strategy with proven results through the Bear Market of 2001-2002 and the Bull run started in 2003. On Zacks.com we have created these 6 unique screens to offer investors great strategies to potentially outperform the market in the years ahead. In 2004 the Upgrades and Revisions strategy was the top performing Profit Track with a return of 55.7%. The Return on Equity screen also produced 30.3% return in 2004. To see all 6 strategies along with philosophy, past performance and current stocks, then go to http://at.zacks.com/?id=1838

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