For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – December 3, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Amazon.com (AMZN) as the Bull of the Day and Luminex Corporation (LMNX) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Sprint Nextel (S), Clearwire Corporation (CLWR) and Verizon (VZ).
Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Amazon.com (AMZN) is one of the largest online retailers in the world. Although North America revenue has been somewhat impacted by the recession, the company is seeing a very strong holiday season.
The higher-margin international business has also been growing, resulting in a more favorable mix of business. Additionally, the company has solid financials, which could be utilized to pursue growth opportunities.
Although competition in online retail is heating up, which has the potential to weaken prices and lower margins, we think the company has the market position and financial muscle to outgrow others in the space. Consequently, we are upgrading AMZN shares to Outperform.
Luminex Corporation (LMNX) reported a third-quarter loss of $0.6 million or a penny per share as opposed to a net income of $3.2 million or 8 cents per share in the comparable period of 2008. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the reported quarter was for a gain of 7 cents.
The loss in the quarter was attributable to higher operating expenses. We remain concerned about the company’s dependence on partners for generating revenues, as the strategy has inherent risks. Furthermore, the competitive life sciences industry is characterized by rapid and continuous technological innovation which further challenges Luminex.
The company’s strategy to grow by acquisitions is also risky. In view of these concerns, we downgrade the stock to Underperform.
Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:
Sprint 4G Reaches Hawaii & Seattle
Sprint Nextel (S) has further expanded its fourth-generation (4G) wireless broadband network. The third largest US carrier has officially launched commercial services in Honolulu and Maui in Hawaii and in Seattle, Washington. Sprint offers its 4G service under the “Sprint 4G” brand and leverages the WiMax (a mobile broadband technology) network operated by Clearwire Corporation (CLWR) in which it holds a 51% stake.
Sprint recently announced its plan to invest an additional US$1.2 billion in Clearwire to facilitate the 4G service roll-out. Subscribers across the newly launched markets can now enjoy lightning fast mobile broadband experience by paying just $10 per month more over their existing 3G wireless data plans. This has been enabled by the nation’s first dual-mode (operates on 3G and 4G networks) mobile broadband modem which was launched by Sprint in December 2008.
The 4G WiMax network offers up to 10 times faster network speeds than the existing 3G deployments. The download speeds enabled by the 4G WiMax network average 3-6 megabits per second (Mbps) with peak speed exceeding 10 Mbps. Sprint became the first US wireless carrier to offer 4G mobile broadband services with the official commercial service launch in Baltimore in Oct 2008.
With the addition of the new markets in Hawaii and Seattle, the company’s 4G services now cover 27 markets in the US. Sprint plans to address more than 120 million people with its 4G network by the end of 2009. Moreover, the company will continue the aggressive network deployments through 2010 with 4G service launches in key US markets such as Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
The Sprint−Clearwire WiMax joint venture represents a response to the emerging 4G wireless broadband standard known as Long-Term Evolution (“LTE”). Sprint’s larger peers, such as Verizon (VZ), are preparing to deploy their own 4G networks in the 2010-2011 timeframe based on LTE which has demonstrated higher throughput levels than WiMax in technical trials.
Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5507.
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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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