Zacks senior business services analyst Sean P. Smith reiterates his Hold recommendation on shares of The Corporate Executive Board (EXBD) today after assessing the company's recently released earnings numbers. Here's what his latest report has to say:

We maintain our Hold rating on shares of The Corporate Executive Board following the release of Q2 [second quarter] financial results. While Q2 EPS [earnings per share] came in slightly ahead of expectations, the upside was largely due to a lower share count, as net income actually declined year-over-year.

While margins remain under pressure, the company does seem to have stabilized operations and is working to return to its previous staffing targets. We consider the shares to be appropriately valued near current levels, after trading higher following the release of Q2 results. Our $70 price target reflects a multiple of approximately 33x our 2007 EPS estimate.

EXBD provides research and analysis to more than 3,700 corporations for a fixed annual membership fee. The company targets top-level executives across a multitude of industries, and then identifies the common issues facing those individuals in a given year. The Corporate Executive Board then develops research programs and studies to help business leaders tackle issues in practice areas such as human resources, strategy, research and development, IT, sales and marketing, legal and real estate, operations, procurement, and financial services.

Read the analyst note on EXBD