Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Genentech, Inc., KeyCorp, Fifth Third Bancorp., Comerica Inc. and Altera Corp

Business Wire, Oct 17, 2008

CHICAGO -- Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Genentech, Inc. (NYSE: DNA), KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY), Fifth Third Bancorp. (Nasdaq: FITB), Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) and Altera Corp. (Nasdaq: ALTR).

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Here are highlights from Thursday's Analyst Blog:

DNA a Crucial Building Block

Genentech, Inc. (NYSE: DNA) is one of the world's largest biotechnology companies. It currently manufactures and sells over a dozen biotechnology products in the U.S., and licenses additional products to other companies to earn royalties.

We are reiterating our rating on Genentech at Buy, and moving our target price to $100 per share. We remind investors that we upgraded the name in February 2008 based on the Accelerated Approval of Avastin for 1st-line metastatic breast cancer. Since that time, Avastin sales have outpaced expectations.

It's Not Working

The stock market is not the storm, it is the barometer. The real storm is in the credit market, particularly the short term credit market. That is what is doing the real harm to Main Street, not the drop in the Dow.

In particular, stay away from the financials, particularly those that have not gotten the sweetheart equity injection. Names like KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) Fifth Third (Nasdaq: FITB) and Comerica (NYSE: CMA) spring to mind as the sorts of stocks to avoid.

Altera In-Line, Stays a Buy

Altera Corp. (Nasdaq: ALTR), a company which designs, manufactures, and markets a broad range of high-performance, high-density programmable logic devices (PLDs), reported Q3:FY08 revenues of $356.8 million, up 13% from a year ago but down 0.8% sequentially, and in line with our estimate of $355 million.

The gross margin improved to 67.1% from 63.8% generated in Q3:07 and was essentially flat with the previous quarter. Operating margin came in at 31.7%, compared to 20.3% in the prior year quarter and 31.5% in the previous quarter. GAAP EPS came in at $0.31, a penny better than our estimate. Going forward, management expects revenues to go up by 1% or down 3% sequentially in Q4:FY08.

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