For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – February 24, 2010 – 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: McGraw-Hill (MHP), Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC), RadioShack Corp. (RSH), Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) and Deutsch Telekom AG (DT).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

States of Distress

The total expected deficits for the states, most of which have fiscal years that end in June, are in the neighborhood of $180 billion for fiscal 2010. Fiscal 2011 is likely to be almost as bad. This is likely to lead to mass layoffs of state workers, including public safety personnel like state troopers. The lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles are likely to get much longer. Aid to municipalities and schools is likely to be cut back, resulting in layoffs of teachers, firefighters and police.

Kids who are stuck in the foster care system are going to be hurt very badly. Medicaid will likely be cut back, and as a result, poor people will die. States will most likely decide to use the same textbooks as last year, hurting revenues for firms like McGraw-Hill (MHP). State parks and municipal swimming pools are likely to close.

In short, the quality of life is likely to deteriorate. The layoffs of state workers will simply add to the ranks of the unemployed and make the national unemployment If the $180 billion gap were to be closed entirely by cutting staff, if we assume a cost of $100,000 per employee (how many cops and teachers are pulling down six figures, by the way?), then that could translate into an additional 1.8 million jobs lost.

Just to put that into perspective, at all levels of government there were only 22.4 million civilian employees in January. While it is not going to be entirely personnel costs that are cut, and some taxes and fees will go up, we are still probably looking at the prospect of a million more jobs lost.

Tenet Healthcare Revenues Rise

Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC) reported fourth quarter 2009 earnings (from continuing operations) of $24 million, or 3 cents per share compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 1 cent. The company suffered a loss (from continuing operations) of $2 million or 1 cent per share in the year-ago quarter.

Net operating revenues in the reported quarter climbed 3.7% to $2.26 billion from $2.18 billion in the year-ago quarter. The company exited the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $690 million, which reflected a decrease of $41 million since Sep 30, 2009. Capital expenditures for the quarter were $192 million.

For full year 2009, Tenet earned 43 cents per share (from continuing operations) as against 15 cents in 2008. In fiscal 2009, net operating revenues came in at approximately $9 billion compared to $8.6 billion in 2008, up approximately 4.7%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2009 hinted at earnings of 15 cents.

RadioShack Barely Beats

RadioShack Corp. (RSH) declared fourth quarter 2009 financial results yesterday after the closing bell. Overall the company performed well as both its top-line and bottom-line increased over the prior-year quarter. However, serious concerns remain regarding RadioShack’s non-wireless product categories and RadioShack Kiosks sales.

GAAP net income, in the fourth quarter, was $75.7 million or 60 cents per share, compared to a net income of $60.1 million or 48 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Fourth quarter earnings of 60 cents per share barely topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 59 cents.

Quarterly net revenue was $1,318.2 million, up 4.7% year-over-year. However, this was slightly below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,325 million. The year-over-year increase in sales is primarily due to a 6.1% rise in comparable same-store sales for company-operated stores partially offset by lower sales in Kiosks.

Quarterly gross profit was $579 million, compared to $526.3 million in the prior-year quarter. Gross margin was 43.9% in the reported quarter, compared to 41.8% in the same quarter of the previous year. This was mainly due to favorable sales-mix for the high-margin products.

Quarterly selling, general, and administrative expenses were $425.7 million, compared to $401.6 million in the year-ago quarter. During 2009, RadioShack re-launched its “The Shack” brand of retail store chain and put its emphasis in wireless technology in order to stay aligned with future trends. Operating income in the fourth quarter was $132.2 million, or 10% of sales, compared with $101.8 million, or 8.1% of sales in the same quarter of last year.

During fiscal 2009, the company generated $245.8 million of cash from operations, compared to $274.6 million in the previous year. Free cash flow (cash flow from operations less capital expenditures) in fiscal 2009 was $164.8 million, compared to $189 million in the previous year.

At the end of fiscal 2009, RadioShack had $908.2 million of cash & cash equivalent, compared to $814.8 million at the end of fiscal 2008. Total debt, at the end of fiscal 2009 was $669.4 million, compared to $698.8 million at the end of fiscal 2008.

Quarterly revenue from Company-operated store segment was up 6.1% year-over-year to $1,128.3 million.

Within this segment, Wireless sales were up 56.4% primarily due to higher Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) and T-Mobile, a division of Deutsch Telekom AG (DT) postpaid wireless sales, higher prepaid wireless handset sales, offset by lower GPS sales. Service revenue was up 13.2% due to higher prepaid wireless airtime.

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