Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: National-Oilwell Varco, The Corporate Executive Board, Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase

Business Wire, Feb 6, 2009

CHICAGO -- Zacks Equity Research highlights National-Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV) as the Bull of the Day and The Corporate Executive Board (Nasdaq: EXBD) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Citigroup (NYSE: C), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM).

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:

National-Oilwell Varco's (NYSE: NOV) fourth-quarter results came in better-than-expected, reflecting increased sales of its oil and gas drilling components, buoyed by the April merger with Grant Prideco.

Revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% sequentially and 43.3% year-over-year to $3.81 billion. The company ended 2008 with a backlog of $11.1 billion, and aims to enter 2010 with a solid $9 billion backlog, highlighting a very high level of earnings visibility going forward.

Despite the challenging economic conditions, the company remains well-positioned for a strong performance in 2009 based on its healthy backlog, solid balance sheet, and strength in its international operations in the Middle East and Brazil. As such, our Buy recommendation remains unchanged.

Bear of the Day:

We maintain our Sell rating on shares of The Corporate Executive Board (Nasdaq: EXBD) following the release of disappointing Q4 results. The company continues to experience deterioration in its cross-sell ratio, and other key operating metrics, including contract value, average subscription price, total member subscriptions, and client renewal rate, all fell in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Given the current operating pressures, along with ongoing concerns regarding a slowing economy, we believe the shares should trade at a discount to the peer group average.

As such, we anticipate that the company's shares will continue to underperform the market in the near-term.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Wanted: A Super-Regulator

Did the regulators not have the authority to crack down on the lending practices at the banks and the enormous amount of risk that was being assumed by the financial institutions, without putting in place a comprehensive risk management, or, was it the result of lack of coordination between the several agencies and institutions entrusted with the task of regulating the various sectors of the U.S. financial markets?

In addition to the lack of exercise of regulatory powers (for whatever reasons), one of the main contributors to the current crisis was the complex and uneven regulatory system, which gave way to gaps and differences in degrees of oversight. As a result, the financial institutions were able to shift risky products to less regulated entities or entities having favorable accounting treatment. This calls for consolidated supervision of parents and all related entities.

Also required is stronger coordination with regulators of other countries so as to effectively regulate the financial behemoths like Citigroup (NYSE: C), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), which have operations all over the world.

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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