Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Evergreen Solar, 3Com Corp., Cognos and Opsware

Business Wire, March 27, 2007

CHICAGO -- Zacks Equity Research highlights Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq: ESLR) as the Bull of the Day and 3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN) and Opsware (Nasdaq: OPSW). 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 Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq: ESLR). The growth potential for the solar industry as a whole, and ESLR in particular remains a compelling story. Capacity expansion and earnings growth make it one of the fastest growing alternative energy stocks. Positives include significant new multi-year sales contracts, capacity expansions at EverQ over the next few years, improving operating efficiencies, technological upgrades, and new silicon supply contracts. However, continuing earnings losses and stock-based compensation expenses partially moderate its upside potential over the near-term. Accordingly, we maintain our BUY recommendation on ESLR with a six-month target price of $12.00. Price appreciation to our near-term valuation target represents annualized total return potential of 33.1%.

Bear of the Day:

Our Bear of the Day recommendation is for 3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS). Though 3Com Corporation has posted growth in its core networking business as well as in security products acquired from TippingPoint, we are cautious on the outlook of the company given the recent purchase agreement of the H-3C joint venture. The stock's valuation has been supported by a strong net cash position of $2.42 per share, which will be at least partially lost following the transaction. Moreover, 3Com will likely compete head-to-head with Huawei after the non-compete agreement expires. We, therefore, reiterate our Sell recommendation on the shares of COMS with a target price of $3.50.

Analyst Blog:

Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN) is considered one of the leading players in the field of Corporate Performance Management (CPM). CPM technology enables firms to measure performance and to understand its underlying causes. Moreover, this technology allows management to consider systematically other valuable courses of action. In the area of business intelligence, the company recently launched Cognos 8. This application can analyze an assortment of data in order to discover the underlying causes of performance. Also, it offers a sophisticated time trending capability. Cognos 8's dashboards convey complex information rapidly. Its event management capability monitors key events to enable faster decision-making. Scorecarding helps align employees with strategy and communicate goals effectively.

Opsware (Nasdaq: OPSW) is a leading provider of datacenter automation software. We believe the company holds a significant advantage over its competitors in what is likely to be a multi-billion dollar market over the long-term. In the near-term, the shares should get a boost from the release of Opsware System 7 and its storage management solution in the second half of this calendar year. We therefore maintain a Buy rating on shares of Opsware with a $21.00 price target.

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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