Zacks Analyst Interview Highlights: Logitech, NDS Group, Alcatel-Lucent, SAP and Business Objects

Business Wire, Dec 19, 2007

CHICAGO -- Zacks.com releases the latest Analyst Interview. Today's interview is with senior analyst Robert Perri, who discusses Logitech (Nasdaq: LOGI), NDS Group (Nasdaq: NNDS), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), SAP (NYSE: SAP) and Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ).

A synopsis of today's Analyst Interview is presented below. The full article can be read at www.zacks.com.

Looking back on 2007 for a moment, where would you say you were dead-on with your forecast? What surprised you the most?

2007 has been a mixed year for us: our picks have done well, with Logitech (Nasdaq: LOGI) and NDS Group (Nasdaq: NNDS) rising significantly this year, and our Sell on Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) worked out well, but we did miss some things that were surprising. After making a solid call on Hyperion Systems earlier in the year, which was purchased a month after we upgraded the stock, we were very surprised after that SAP (NYSE: SAP) then went ahead and bought Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ).

We followed both companies, and while we believe the combination is good, we didn't expect SAP to make such a large purchase of anyone, let alone Business Objects. Business Objects has been the consolidator in the Business Intelligence space, making timely acquisitions to boost growth, and SAP has always been the organic grower in the industry, making only small acquisitions when feasible. This transaction may be about SAP acquiring not only a business intelligence platform, but also the management expertise that Business Objects has for finding and integrating acquisitions. It will be interesting to see how this combination plays out in the coming years.

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The performance of the Zacks Rank portfolios shown above for annual and year-to-date periods are the linked monthly total returns (price changes dividends) of equal weighted hypothetical portfolios, consisting of those stocks with the indicated Zacks Rank, assuming monthly rebalancing and zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios. The hypothetical portfolios were created at the beginning of each month from Jan 1988 forward based on the values of the Zacks Rank available to Zacks' clients before the beginning of each month. The portfolios created monthly from 1988 through September 2006 exclude ADRs and are comprised of stocks that have the indicated Zacks Rank and were covered by at least two analysts at the time of the stocks inclusion in the portfolio. Starting in October 2006 and going forward, the portfolios are comprised of all stocks with the indicated Zacks Rank and do not exclude ADRs, which is more reflective of the list of stocks that customers will find on the Zacks web sites. 2007 returns are for the period of Jan 1 - Jun 30, 2007. These performance numbers have been audited from 1995 through 2003 by Autschuler Melovan, a division of American Express Financial.