Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. (GNK) was a top-performing Zacks #1 Rank company last week as shares gained more than 10.7%. Earnings estimates for this year are up 3% in the past month, and analysts currently expect 2009 EPS to grow approximately 37% from 2008. Meanwhile, GNK has beaten Wall Street's quarterly earnings expectations for 4 consecutive quarters with an average surprise of 14.6%.

Favorable contracts and profit-sharing agreements led to a strong second-quarter performance for GNK, which it reported on Jul 30. Earnings per share of $1.95 beat the consensus of $1.72 by almost 13.4%. Revenues jumped 184% from last year to $104.6 million, thanks to the operation of a larger fleet and the renewal of time charters at higher rates. The average daily time charter equivalent (TCE) surged 95% in the quarter. GNK currently has about 94% of its fleet's available days secured on contracts for the rest of the year, and 60% for 2009.

Knoll, Inc. (KNL) - a Zacks #1 Rank Top Performer last week with a gain of 10.4% - announced on Thursday that its Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of 12 cents per share, payable Sep 30 to stockholders of record on Sep 15. Over the past month, earnings estimates for this year and next have advanced 10.5% and 5.5%, respectively.

KNL's second quarter, which was announced in mid-July, continued its streak of meeting or beating Wall Street's quarterly earnings estimates. Adjusted earnings per share of 49 cents topped the consensus by 22.5%, setting up an average surprise of 11.2% over the past 4 quarters. The earnings result was also more than 32% better than the year-earlier total of 37 cents. Net sales advanced 7.5% to $292.5 million. KNL attributed results to its diversification strategy that focused on high design content businesses and away from dependence on North American systems sales.

Mariner Energy, Inc. (ME), an independent oil & gas exploration, development and production company, gained 8.5% last week.