Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Bayer AG, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, ExxonMobil and Becton, Dickinson

Business Wire, August 1, 2007

CHICAGO -- Zacks Equity Research highlights Bayer AG (NYSE: BAY) as the Bull of the Day and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MLNM) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Becton, Dickinson (NYSE: BDX). Full analysis of all four stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all four stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Our Bull of the Day recommendation is for Bayer AG (NYSE: BAY). We expect Bayer to report a solid second quarter when it reports on August 7th, as the company works to improve its product portfolio and we expect higher cost synergies from the Schering acquisition. The divestment of the Wolff Walsrode business will result in cash inflows of approximately 440 million Euros ($590 million) and should help reduce Bayer's net debt. We are now forecasting revenue growth of 24% in 2007 and have raised our earnings outlook for 2007 and 2008. Using our newly raised fiscal year 2007 earnings estimate of $4.80 and a forward multiple of 17.5x, we have raised our price target to $84 and continue to rate shares a Buy.

Bear of the Day:

Our Bear of the Day recommendation is for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MLNM), a drug discovery and development company incorporating large-scale genetics, genomics, high throughput screening and informatics in an integrated science and technology platform. Millennium relies heavily on Velcade, the company's only product on the market, for both short term and long term growth. However, Velcade's growth has slowed down since 2006 due to stiff competition from Celgene's Revlimid and Thalidomide. The company has a robust, interesting and early-stage pipeline which will not contribute to revenue growth before 2009. As such, we maintain our Sell rating on the shares with a price target of $9.

Analyst Blog:

ExxonMobil's (NYSE: XOM) second-quarter 2007 recurring earnings were above our below-consensus estimate; though results came in below street consensus. The marginally negative year-over-year comparison was due to lower natural gas realizations and a modest decline in volumes, mostly offset by improved downstream results. We continue to like the stock for its best-in-class upstream business, a chemicals business that is fully integrated with its quality refining assets, an exceptionally strong balance sheet, and a track record of returning capital to shareholders. We are raising our estimates (2007: $7.05 vs. $6.72; 2008: $6.98 vs. $6.31).

Becton, Dickinson's (NYSE: BDX) third quarter results beat our estimates on better revenues, improved operating margin and below-the-operating-line upside, as well as lower share count. However, absent acquired growth and FX benefit, organic revenue growth remains in the 5.5-7.0% area. We are increasing our top-line and bottom-line estimates on the quarter upside, two cents above the company's raised fiscal 2007 guidance. Our target price remains at $79.00, a 15% group P/E [price-to-earnings] premium.

Get the full analysis of all four stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=2649.

About the Bull and Bear of the Day

Every day, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research select two stocks that are likely to outperform (Bull) or underperform (Bear) the markets over the next 3-6 months.

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