Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: CONSOL Energy, Navigant Consulting, CV Therapeutics, Conseco and Centennial Communications

Business Wire, August 5, 2008

CHICAGO -- Zacks Equity Research highlights CONSOL Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNX) as the Bull of the Day and Navigant Consulting (NYSE: NCI) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on CV Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CVTX), Conseco, Inc. (NYSE: CNO) and Centennial Communications (Nasdaq: CYCL).

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: CONSOL Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNX)

We are upgrading our recommendation of CONSOL Energy to Buy from Hold and raising our target price to $107.00 per share up from $86.00 per share given the strong domestic and export coal fundamentals as well as the recent 33% pullback in the company's stock price in the last three weeks. With both volumes and average price realizations looking to increase substantially through 2010, CNX should be able to grow its 2010 earnings more than 3.5x our 2008 estimate.

Bear of the Day: Navigant Consulting (NYSE: NCI)

Shares of Navigant Consulting are trading at 19.9x and 17.4x our 2008 and 2009 EPS estimates, respectively, and at an 9% and 19% premium to the peer group average, respectively. On the second quarter earnings call, management effectively lowered its full-year outlook for operations in the core business.

Until we see further evidence that NCI's business has fully recovered from the issues that plagued company throughout much of 2007, we do not believe that a premium valuation, relative to the peer group, is warranted. Our price target reflects of multiple of 15x our 2008 EPS estimate.

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CV Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CVTX)

Several big regulatory decisions will make 2008 a pivotal year for CV Therapeutics Inc. The first positive one came in April with the approval of Lexiscan for myocardial perfusion imaging. In July, the European Medicines Agency approved its chronic angina drug Ranexa in Europe. However, the biggest decisions are still to come.

The Street is pretty split on CVTX right now. We are in the moderately positive camp, believing that Ranexa will eventually pick up steam after the label expansion(s). We remind investors, there are three separate applications here: one for first-line angina, one for a potential anti-arrhythmic claim, and another for use in diabetics with coronary disease.

Conseco, Inc. (NYSE: CNO)

Conseco is expected to release its 2Q08 financial results between August 6 and August 16, 2008. The first quarter operating earnings came in at $0.11 per share, much weaker than the estimates, though better than the results of the past few quarters.

We are a bit disappointed with the lower-than-expected results 1Q08 results. While Bankers Life and Colonial Penn segments continued with steady growth and Conseco Insurance Group turned profitable, the losses in the Runoff segment were not preventable. Though management expects better results in future, we remain concerned with the continued weakness in the results for the past few quarters.

Centennial Communications (Nasdaq: CYCL)

We are upgrading our recommendation to Hold for Centennial Communications Corp., a regional provider of wireless and integrated communications, based on the company's recent operational performance, along with sustainable subscriber growth across all of its operational areas.

CYCL delivered better-than-expected operating results in the most recent quarter, beating our expectations with revenues and customer growth across all its business areas. Importantly, the annual consolidated revenues of approximately $1 billion and $400 million in adjusted operating income for fiscal year 2008 represents a first time operational achievement for the company. CYCL continues to grow its U.S. wireless business with total revenues of $550.7 million for fiscal year 2008.

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