Zacks' High Rank Value strategy highlights: BP, Heartland Financial USA, Delta Natural Gas and Timken

Business Wire, July 2, 2008

CHICAGO -- Many value investors look for stocks trading at Price/Earnings multiples below 15 and Price/Book multiples below 3. Combining these valuation measures with a Zacks Rank of #1 ("Strong Buy") or #2 ("Buy") helps to ensure that a stock is truly undervalued. The High Rank Value Profit Track strategy finds such bargains - bargains that generated returns of exceeding the S&P 500 in 2006. Four stocks meeting this strategy's exclusive criteria are: BP plc (NYSE: BP), Heartland Financial USA Inc. (NASDAQ: HTLF), Delta Natural Gas Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: DGAS) and Timken Co. (NYSE: TKR). View the entire list of stocks for the High Rank Value Profit Track at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2136.

Here are details about four companies currently identified by the High Rank Value Profit Track:

BP plc (NYSE: BP) qualifies for the High Rank Value profit track with a P/E ratio of 11.26 and a P/B ratio of 1.25. BP reported first quarter earnings of $2.42 per share, while the analysts were expecting $1.73. Moreover, this Zacks #1 Rank sports a dividend yield of 4.20% and paid a quarterly cash dividend of 81 cents per share on May 14. BP is the holding company of one of the world's largest petroleum and petrochemicals groups and is scheduled to announce second-quarter earnings on Jul 29.

Heartland Financial USA Inc. (NASDAQ: HTLF) is a Zacks #1 Rank company with some very attractive valuations, including a P/E multiple of 12.21 and a price to book multiple of 1.26. HTLF delivered year-over-year first quarter earnings that increased to 38 cents per share from 34 cents. HTLF is a multi-bank holding company operating through bank subsidiaries in the states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and New Mexico

Delta Natural Gas Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: DGAS) is a regulated public utility that sports a Zacks #1 Rank and a P/E of 12.56. On top of that, DGAS enjoys a dividend yield of 4.75% and a P/B ratio of 1.46, which meets this screen's parameters of a dividend yield greater than 2% and a P/B ratio less than 3. In the first quarter, the company reported earnings of $1.65, which exceeded analysts' expectations of $1.10.

Timken Co. (NYSE: TKR) reported a 19% increase in year-over-year first quarter earnings, which jumped to 82 cents per share from 66 cents. The company enjoys a dividend yield of 2.06%, and paid a quarterly dividend of 17 cents on Jun 3. The Zacks #2 Rank company qualifies for this profit track with a P/E ratio of 12.82 and a P/B ratio of 1.53. TKR is a leading international manufacturer of highly engineered bearings, alloy and specialty steels and components.

Discover all the current stocks currently on the High Rank Value Profit Track at: http://at.zacks.com/?id=2137.

About Profit Tracks

What is a "Profit Track"? Each Profit Track is a successful stock picking strategy with proven results through the Bear Market of 2001-2002 and the Bull run started in 2003. On Zacks.com we have created these nine unique screens to offer investors great strategies to potentially outperform the market in the years ahead. In 2006, the Low Price Stocks strategy was the top performing Profit Track with a return of 56.5% followed by the Discounted Fundamental screen with a 34% return. To see all nine strategies along with philosophy, past performance and current stocks, go to http://at.zacks.com/?id=4568.

All the Profit Track strategies were created and back tested using the Research Wizard software from Zacks Investment Research. If you like this screening strategy, but want to narrow down the list of stocks and even improve the performance, then you should start a free trial to this powerful stock picking tool. Learn more about the Research Wizard free trial offer and our new special report "Top 10 Stock Screening Strategies" at http://at.zacks.com/?id=4566.

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