Zacks Growth and Income Strategy Highlights: Crystal River Capital, Deerfield Triarc Capital Corp., Eagle Bulk Shipping and Iowa Telecommunications Services

Business Wire, Dec 19, 2006

CHICAGO -- The Zacks Growth and Income Profit Track strategy looks for stocks with unusually high dividend yields. Although this screen is based on a long-term and lower risk approach to investing, it has a history of outperforming the S&P 500. Four stocks meeting this screen's exclusive criteria are: Crystal River Capital, Inc. (NYSE: CRZ), Deerfield Triarc Capital Corp. (NYSE: DFR), Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (Nasdaq: EGLE) and Iowa Telecommunications Services, Inc. (NYSE: IWA). View the entire list of stocks for the Growth and Income Profit Track at http://at.zacks.com/?id=1850

Here are details about four companies currently identified by the Growth and Income Profit Track:

Crystal River Capital, Inc. (NYSE: CRZ) offers a current dividend yield of 9.54%. The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of 66 cents per share, up from the previous quarterly dividend of 60 cents. In early November, CRZ announced third-quarter results, stating that it continues to seek investment opportunities with a particular focus on commercial real estate debt that will allow it to achieve its targeted portfolio allocation and maximize value for shareholders.

Deerfield Triarc Capital Corp. (NYSE: DFR) reported third-quarter earnings of 38 cents per share in mid-November, surpassing last year's 27 cents and exceeding the consensus estimate by almost 3%. The company mentioned that solid growth in both the dividend and book value validate the momentum it sees in this business. In late October, DFR declared a third-quarter dividend of 40 cents per share, which represents the fourth consecutive increase in the quarterly dividend, or 33.3% over the third quarter of 2005. DFR's current dividend yield is 9.88%.

Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (Nasdaq: EGLE) meets the criteria for this Profit Track as evidenced by its current dividend yield of 12.41%. In early November, the company released its report for the third quarter, noting that its results highlight continued strong performance. Adjusted earnings per share totaled 34 cents, which matched the consensus estimate. The third-quarter report also stated that a dividend of 51 cents per share was paid on November 2, 2006 to shareholders of record as of October 30, 2006.

Iowa Telecommunications Services, Inc. (NYSE: IWA) recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.405 per share. The company's current dividend yield stands at 8.22%. In early November, Iowa Telecommunications Services posted third-quarter earnings of 25 cents per share, which was approximately 4% above Wall Street estimates. During the past five consecutive quarters, IWA exceeded analyst expectations three times.

Discover all the current stocks currently on the Growth and Income Profit Track at: http://at.zacks.com/?id=1896

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. For the first five months of 2006, the Low Price Stocks strategy was the top performing Profit Track with a return of 22.2% followed by the Discounted Fundamental screen with a 18.6% 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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