Zacks' High Rank Value Strategy Highlights: Comm Bancorp, Deerfield Triarc Capital Corp., Eagle Bulk Shipping and EMC Insurance Group

Business Wire, Nov 20, 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 - bargains that generated returns of 1.4% in the first five months of 2006. Four stocks meeting this strategy's exclusive criteria are Comm Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq: CCBP), Deerfield Triarc Capital Corp. (NYSE: DFR), Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (Nasdaq: EGLE) and EMC Insurance Group Inc. (Nasdaq: EMCI). 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:

Comm Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq: CCBP) offers a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple is 12.73 and a price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.45. The company recently reported third-quarter earnings of 87 cents per share, outpacing the year-ago total of 74 cents. The company stated that growth in net interest income continued to be the primary cause for its record third quarter and year-to-date earnings.

Deerfield Triarc Capital Corp. (NYSE: DFR) recently announced third-quarter earnings of 38 cents per share, 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. DFR's price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple is 10.15 and its price-to-book (P/B) multiple is 1.14.

Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (Nasdaq: EGLE) is Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) company. EGLE meets the criteria for this Profit Track as evidenced by its price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 12.22 and a price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.62. The company recently released its report for the third quarter, noting that third quarter results highlight continued strong performance.

EMC Insurance Group Inc. (Nasdaq: EMCI) another Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) name, has a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 8.43 and a price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.55. The company posted third-quarter earnings of 85 cents per share in late October. The result matched the consensus estimate. The company commented that it was another record-breaking quarter, adding that it has a solid book of business and it continues to benefit from favorable development on prior years' reserves.

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. 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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