For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL - April 26, 2012 - Zacks Equity Research highlights
ManpowerGroup
(
MAN
) as the Bull of the Day and
CSN
(
SID
) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research
provides analysis on
Sears Holdings Corporation
(
SHLD
),
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
(
WMT
) and
Target Corporation
(
TGT
).
Full analysis of all these stocks is available at
http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678
.
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Bull of the Day
:
ManpowerGroup's
(
MAN
) first-quarter 2012 earnings of $0.50 per share beat the Zacks
Consensus Estimate of $0.35, and grew 16.3% from the year-ago
quarter on the back of revenue growth with Asia-Pacific Middle East
segment portraying robust performance. Better expense control also
provided cushion to the bottom-line.
Manpower also witnessed a surge in permanent recruitment
business, and its workforce solutions business sustained its growth
momentum. The demand for the counter-cyclical outplacement services
portrayed signs of steadiness.
We believe that Manpower's brand value, comprehensive range of
services and a strong global network provide a competitive
advantage and reinforce its dominant position in the market. Our
target price of $48.00, 16.3X 2012 EPS, reflects our Outperform
recommendation on the shares.
Bear of the Day
:
Brazilian steel company
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional
, or
CSN
(
SID
) posted satisfactory fourth quarter results with EPADR of roughly
31 cents per share, much above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 20
cents per share. Despite a few positives, there are a few
irrefutable downsides pertaining to the stock of the company at
present.
These downsides include rising costs of goods sold, presence of
serious competition and foreign market fluctuations, which are
adversely affecting sales of the company in the clouded fiscal
scenario. Earnings estimates for 2012 have decreased on a year over
year basis.
Thus, we are downgrading shares to an Underperform
recommendation from a previous sideline view on the stock at
present. Our target price on the stock is $8.50, based on a 2012
P/E multiple of 8.6x.
Latest Posts on the Zacks
Analyst Blog
:
Sears Sells Off More Pieces
Sears Canada Inc., a unit of
Sears Holdings Corporation
(
SHLD
), continues to liquidate its assets in line with its strategy of
divesting assets to boost its cash and overall financial position.
Sears Canada announced that it has entered into a deal with
Nationwide Marketing Group LLC to sell its interest in Cantrex
Group operations.
Cantrex facilitates Sears to develop its merchandising, buying
and logistics services in the furniture and appliance sectors. The
company expects to complete the deal by the end of April.
However, Sears Canada indicated that it will retain its
ownership interest in Corbeil Electrique Inc., which was acquired
as a part of the Cantrex acquisition in 2005. Corbeil is a well
known brand in the appliance retail market. Looking into 2012,
Sears Canada has plans in place to spread its Corbeil brand to the
Greater Toronto area.
As per Sears, Cantrex will continue to carry out its
administrative operations in the Sears Canada's logistics center
located in Montreal (QC). Moreover, Sears Canada and Cantrex will
jointly share the facilities at Vaughan (ON) and Vancouver (
BC
).
Earlier this week, Sears Canada had closed a deal to return its
three stores in Canada to the real estate developer and landlord,
The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited, for a pretax gain of
$170 million. The three Sears stores are located at the Rideau
Centre in Ottawa, Chinook Centre in suburban Calgary and the
Pacific Centre in downtown Vancouver. These are all owned and
managed by Cadillac Fairview. As per the deal, Sears will vacate
these places by October 31, 2012.
Prior to this, on April 17, 2012, Sears Holdings closed the sale
of its 11 full line stores to General Growth Properties for a sum
of $270 million. The 11 Sears stores located in Florida, Hawaii,
Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Washington
were sold as part of the company's announcement in December
2011.
Grappling with weak top- and bottom-line performance, Sears
Holdings had announced shuttering of 100 to 120 Kmart and Sears
full-line stores in December 2011 to trim down costs and produce
cash. Further, the company expects to produce $140 to $170 million
of cash from store closures through inventory clearance.
The crux of the matter is Sears is trying hard to optimize its
financial performance through a string of measures for enhancing
its growth prospects. The company's focus is now on improving its
structure by dipping investment in sections of the company that no
longer contributes significantly to its growth.
Apart from this, the company will focus on cost containment,
inventory management, and merchandise initiatives to improve
margins through leverage on buying and occupancy expenses.
Sears Holdings, which competes with
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
(
WMT
) and
Target Corporation
(
TGT
), currently retains a long-term Underperform recommendation. The
company has a Zacks #3 Rank, implying a short-term Hold rating.
Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to
http://at.zacks.com/?id=2649
.
About the Bull and Bear of the Day
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.
About the Analyst Blog
Updated throughout every trading day, the
Analyst Blog
provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news
and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.
About Zacks Equity Research
Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and
qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and
which to sell for the long-term.
Continuous analyst coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150
publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry
which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company
profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices
are six-month time horizons.
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MANPOWER INC WI (
MAN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
SEARS HLDG CP (
SHLD
): Free Stock Analysis Report
CIA SIDERUR-ADR (
SID
): Free Stock Analysis Report
TARGET CORP (
TGT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
WAL-MART STORES (WMT): Free Stock Analysis
Report
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