Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Hain Celestial, Zions Bancorp, Hallmark Financial, Anadigics and Motorola

Business Wire, August 28, 2008

CHICAGO -- Zacks Equity Research highlights Hain Celestial (Nasdaq: HAIN) as the Bull of the Day and Zions Bancorporation (Nasdaq: ZION) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Hallmark Financial (Nasdaq: HALL), Anadigics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANAD) and Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT).

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: Hain Celestial (Nasdaq: HAIN)

Healthy internal sales growth, driven by consumer demand for natural food products, and management's focus on improving profit margins bode well for Hain Celestial Group's outlook. In addition, management's acquisition strategy adds incremental growth to the company's organic sales growth. The company has been successful implementing price increases with the most recent having been realized in June.

Bear of the Day: Zions Bancorporation (Nasdaq: ZION)

ZION's 2Q08 operating earnings of $0.66 per diluted share were substantially below our estimate as well as consensus. The earnings for the quarter were mostly impacted by the sharp increase in provisions, coupled with impairment and valuation losses on securities. Ongoing weakness in the southwestern residential real estate markets, where the company has a significant exposure, continues to hurt the results.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Hallmark Financial (Nasdaq: HALL)

Hallmark Financial Services' core 2Q08 results were a penny ahead of our expectations, benefiting from good earned premium growth, additional income from a larger investment portfolio resulting from increased retention of premiums, and a favorable prior-year loss reserve development.

Excellent risk-adjusted capitalization, favorable operating performance, and financial flexibility helped the company in maintaining its A- rating. The acquisition of various agency production sources has resulted in geographic as well product risk for the group. We believe these factors will bring stability to HALL's earnings. As such, we keep the shares on Hold.

Anadigics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANAD)

Anadigics recently downgraded its guidance and now expects revenue around $62-$65 million, down from the previous estimate of $75-$81 million. Pro-forma EPS should now be between -$0.01 and $0.01. As a result, ANAD will also defer additional investments in its China fab. We are appalled by the significant outlook revision given that the company held their conference call only a few weeks ago.

Earlier, the company reported second-quarter results, which topped our estimates, driven by stronger than anticipated growth in broadband. Revenue of $80.5 million, up 8% quarter-over-quarter and 49% year-over-year, exceeded our estimate of $78 million. Pro-forma EPS of $0.18 beat our estimate by two cents. However, wireless segment was down 3.7% sequentially and the management indicated that the softness is going to continue in the third quarter due to softness in the market and some inventory correction at customers. We reiterate our Hold rating.

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT)

Motorola, a leading manufacturer of mobile handsets, network infrastructure and cable products, declared better than expected second quarter 2008 financial results supported by higher mobile handset sales and encouraging performance with its Home & Network Mobility and Enterprise Mobility solutions business segments.

Motorola implemented effective cost-cutting measures, generated positive cash flow from operations, and maintained a respectable net cash position. The management's outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year is also more favorable. The company's Home & Network Mobility and Enterprise Mobility Solutions divisions are expected to contribute more in the future reporting periods.

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