Zacks' High Rank Value Strategy Highlights: Comm Bancorp, Alliant Energy Corp., MCG Capital Corporation and iStar Financial

Business Wire, Sept 1, 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 exceeding the S&P 500 in 2006. Four stocks meeting this strategy's exclusive criteria are Comm Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:CCBP), Alliant Energy Corp. (NYSE:LNT), MCG Capital Corporation (Nasdaq:MCGC) 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:

Comm Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:CCBP) offers a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple is 13.33 and a price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.51. In mid-July, the company posted second-quarter earnings of 85 cents per share, eclipsing the previous year's 65 cents. Comm Bancorp stated that solid net interest income growth was the key factor leading to record second quarter and year-to-date earnings.

Alliant Energy Corp. (NYSE:LNT) announced second-quarter earnings in early August. Earnings per share of 39 cents topped the consensus estimate by almost 26%. Alliant Energy's quarterly earnings have been above Wall Street estimates during the past five consecutive quarters. LNT has a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple is 13.95 and a price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.71.

MCG Capital Corporation (Nasdaq:MCGC) recently released its report for the second quarter. Earnings per share outperformed the consensus estimate by 13.5% and exceeded the year-ago total. The company surpassed analysts' expectations three times out of the past five quarters and matched once. MCG Capital Corporation satisfies the criteria for this Profit Track with a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 9.98 and price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.29.

iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE:SFI) sports a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 11.67 and its price-to-book (P/B) multiple is 1.90. In late July, the company reported adjusted second-quarter earnings of 91 cents per share, beating the previous year's 83 cents and topping analysts' expectations by about 7%. The company noted that it expects 2006 adjusted earnings per share to be $3.45 - $3.55. This prompted analysts to bring estimates up to $3.55 per share. Two months ago Wall Street projections were at $3.50.

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

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