Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Qualcomm, Hudson City Bancorp, DRDGOLD, UAL Corporation and ACE, Ltd

Business Wire, April 16, 2008

CHICAGO -- Zacks Equity Research highlights Qualcomm, Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) as the Bull of the Day and Hudson City Bancorp (Nasdaq: HCBK) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on DRDGOLD, Ltd. (Nasdaq: DROOY), UAL Corporation (Nasdaq: UAUA) and ACE, Ltd. (NYSE: ACE). Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day: Qualcomm, Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM)

Qualcomm's fundamentals remain compelling as robust growth in the 3G wireless handset market are driving healthy product sales. Multiple WCDMA operators have adopted Qualcomm's BREW platform and the company maintains favorable average selling prices on most of its business lines. We believe continued strength in the 3G wireless market and the emergence of mobile video solutions, coupled with superior technology and a cash strong balance sheet, support Qualcomm's long-term growth prospects.

Bear of the Day: Hudson City Bancorp (Nasdaq: HCBK)

With current industry overhangs for mortgage lending, we take some exception to the company's significant use of purchased mortgages given credit and capital metric trends at this time. Thus, we are retaining our Sell rating on the shares of this company. Our new six-month price target of $15.75 per share equates to a negative 14.3% expected total return.

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DRDGOLD Limited (Nasdaq: DROOY)

DRDGOLD is an unhedged gold-producing company with operations in South Africa and Australasia. The company has separated its South African and Australasian operations, thus becoming a more focused entity. With minimal debt on its balance sheet, DROOY is well positioned to undertake expansion activities.

However, there are some challenges faced by the company with respect to its aging assets, environmental laws and currency risks. Further, as most of the production cost is in Rands while gold is generally sold in dollars, the company is exposed to currency risk by an appreciation in the value of the Rand. Given the rising power problems in South Africa, the company is likely to face lower production.

UAL Corporation (Nasdaq: UAUA)

We are maintaining our Hold on UAL Corporation, a.k.a. UAL or United, but reducing our target price to $23. UAL is expected to report first quarter earnings in late April. We are reducing our 2008 estimate to a loss of $3.30 per share from earnings of $1.70 per share, largely due to increased fuel costs from surging oil prices, as well as higher maintenance, purchased services, and materials costs.

Results in 2008 should also reflect moderate revenue growth, based upon higher domestic airfares, reduced domestic capacity, and an increased international presence. UAL reported a fourth quarter loss of $0.47 per share, better than the consensus loss of $0.96 per share, but short of our $0.25 loss per share, mainly due to higher fuel costs. Fuel costs rose by $293 million, or 26%, year-over-year as oil prices reached $100 per barrel.

UAL shares are down 37.2% year-to-date compared to median declines of 29.7% for legacy carriers, 26.4% for the airline industry, and 7.3% for the S&P 500. In general, this poor performance for the airline industry reflects expectations of higher fuel costs due to surging oil prices.

ACE, Ltd. (NYSE: ACE)

ACE, Ltd. intends to release its 1Q08 results after market close on April 29, 2008, with a conference call scheduled for the next day. While recent quarterly results experienced benefits (from net investment income and a favorable prior period development), our concerns for potential pressure on shares that could be experienced over the next couple of quarters outweighs our growth expectations for this company at this time.

We have increased our FY08 earnings expectations, but maintained our FY09 earnings expectation. We maintained our Hold recommendation on the shares, but increased our six-month price target slightly to $60.00 per share.

Despite some of the general softening of casualty lines (which account for roughly two-thirds of ACE's premiums), we expect ACE to show trends in its premiums and earnings. Our six-month price target of $60.00 per share, incorporates a 10.0% premium to the peer group's average price-to-book (given the company s ROE ratios compared to its peers levels), or a 1.15x price-to-book multiple to our estimate for the company s book value of $52.10 per share at June 30, 2008.

Get the full analysis of all these 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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