(Source: Business Wire)
Zacks Equity Research highlights Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) as the Bull of the Day and Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A. (NYSE: STD) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Principal Financial Group (NYSE: PFG), Huntington Bank (Nasdaq: HBAN) and Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN).
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:
Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) continues to generate new business wins, despite the current challenging economic environment. In addition, management has acquired complementary companies that either serve or have the ability to serve the existing client base through the extension of the company's platform of services.
In reaction to the current economic challenges, management has taken the appropriate actions of aligning the company's cost structure for 2009 revenue expectations by right-sizing headcount and reducing compensation pools.
The rating for the shares of Omnicom Group has been raised to a Buy due to attractive valuation.
Bear of the Day:
We are continuing our Sell rating on Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A. (NYSE: STD), as well as our $7 target price. Santander reported 2008 full-year net earnings of 8.9 billion, up 11% year over year but below our estimate, as loan impairment charges were higher than anticipated. The rise in nonperforming loans was an especially sour note in an otherwise satisfactory performance, relative to European peers.
The company has been on a tear on the acquisition front, with most recent purchases including the UK's Alliance & Leicester, the retail operations of Bradford & Bingley plc in the UK, and the remaining 76% of Sovereign Bancorp that it did not own in the US. On November 28, 2008, Santander completed the sale of 1.599 billion new shares through a rights offering at a price of 4.50 per share for a total capital increase of 7.2 billion.
We are reducing our 2009 EPADS estimates $1.36 from $1.79, due to expectations for higher losses and lower revenues from the global economic slowdown and depreciation of the against the US$. Santander has a particularly large exposure to the property market, both in Spain and the UK, where it is now the second largest bank as measured by share of the mortgage market. The 2008 full-year dividend was maintained at 0.65 (US$0.84) per share.
