Zacks' High Rank Value Strategy Highlights: American Electric Power Co., Energy East Corp., First United Corporation and iStar Financial Inc

Business Wire, April 11, 2006

CHICAGO -- Many value investors look for stocks trading at Price/Earnings multiples below 15 and Price/Book multiples below 3. Combining these valuation measures with a Zacks Rank of #1 ("Strong Buy") or #2 ("Buy") helps to ensure that a stock is truly undervalued. The High Rank Value Profit Track strategy finds such bargains. This screen generated a 13.7% return in 2005. Four stocks meeting this strategy's exclusive criteria are American Electric Power Co., Inc. (NYSE:AEP), Energy East Corp. (NYSE:EAS), First United Corporation (Nasdaq:FUNC) and iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE:SFI). View the entire list of stocks for the High Rank Value Profit Track at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2136.

Here are details about four companies currently identified by the High Rank Value Profit Track:

American Electric Power Co., Inc. (NYSE:AEP) reaffirmed its 2006 full year earnings guidance of $2.50 to $2.70 per share in early March. Analysts are in agreement as evidenced by current estimates of $2.61 per share, up from three months-ago levels of $2.60. In early February, the company reported ongoing earnings for the fourth quarter of 29 cents per share, beating the consensus estimate by almost 12%. The public utility holding company has a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 12.35 and price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.46.

Energy East Corp. (NYSE:EAS) offers a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 13.34 and a price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.26. The company released unaudited fourth-quarter earnings of 43 cents per share in early February, exceeding the year-prior result. EAS noted that earnings were ahead of last year primarily due to higher margins on electric sales and an increase in electric deliveries.

First United Corporation (Nasdaq:FUNC) satisfies the criteria for this Profit Track with a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 11.41 and price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.53. The company, a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) name, is a one-bank holding company with two non-bank subsidiaries. In late February, the company posted fourth-quarter earnings of 69 cents per share, which was ahead of the year-prior performance.

iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE:SFI) reported fourth-quarter earnings of 81 cents per share in late February, matching the consensus estimate. The company mentioned that Last year it achieved a number of significant milestones that helped it compete during a challenging year and position it well for the long-term. SFI's shares offer a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 11.27 and a price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.75. Results for the first quarter will be available on April 25.

Discover all the current stocks currently on the High Rank Value Profit Track at: http://at.zacks.com/?id=2137.

About Profit Tracks

What is a "Profit Track"? Each Profit Track 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 nine unique screens to offer investors great strategies to potentially outperform the market in the years ahead. In 2005, the Low Price Stocks strategy was the top performing Profit Track with a return of 51.9% followed by the Recent Price Strength screen with a 35.5% return. To see all nine strategies along with philosophy, past performance, and current stocks, go to http://at.zacks.com/?id=1838

All the Profit Track strategies were created and backtested using the Research Wizard software from Zacks Investment Research. If you like this screening strategy, but want to narrow down the list of stocks and even improve the performance, then you should start a free trial to this powerful stock picking tool. Learn more about the Research Wizard free trial offer and our new special report "Top 10 Stock Screening Strategies" at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2156

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