Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: China Life, Pfizer, W.W. Grainger and Marriott Hotels.

CHICAGO -- Zacks Equity Research highlights China Life Insurance (NYSE: LFC) as the Bull of the Day and Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW) and Marriott Hotels (NYSE: MAR). Full analysis of all four stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all four stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Our Bull of the Day recommendation is for China Life Insurance (NYSE: LFC). China Life announced its annual financial results for 2006, which exceeded market consensus. It is clear that China Life is the market leader in China's life insurance industry, where opportunities are significant. Although China Life still faces growing competition and has not successfully completed its conversion to higher margin products, its current valuation does not fully reflect its growth prospects, in our view. Therefore, we maintain our Buy recommendation on China Life shares.

Bear of the Day:

Our Bear of the Day recommendation is for Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE). We continue to rate Pfizer a Sell based on a shrinking top-line and weak late-stage pipeline. The discontinuation of leading pipeline product torcetrapib was devastating to Pfizer's top- and bottom-line growth prospects beyond 2010. Pfizer announced (yet another) major restructuring and cost-cutting initiative in early 2007. We do not find cost-cutting and share buybacks as a viable long-term growth strategy. The company will probably seek to do multiple deals in the pharma and biotech industry in 2007. The risk of over-paying or failing to successfully integrate on these acquisitions is high. In our view, the stock does not become attractive on a dividend and cash flow basis until the low $20s per share.

Analyst Blog:

Over the last five years, W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW) has traded at a premium to the S&P 500 with an average one-year forward P/E [price-to-earnings] of 20x. At the current price, GWW shares are trading at 16.8x our revised 2007 earnings estimate of $4.87 per share, above S&P 500, its peer group, and industry median multiple of 16.6. The combination of an end-market recovery and the positive impact from new initiatives are driving top-line growth. However, over the near-term, we think higher costs incurred from investments in branch expansion and IT initiatives might undermine earnings leverage.

We continue to rate the shares of Marriott Hotels (NYSE: MAR) a Hold following the release of first quarter 2007 results. The shares fell 7.5% yesterday after MAR lowered its full-year RevPAR [revenue per available room] guidance from a range of 7% - 9% to a range of 6% - 8%. Despite the revision, we believe that Marriott's business outlook remains solid. Although we are bullish on the state of the hotel sector, and have a positive opinion on Marriott's operations, we believe that the shares are currently trading near fair value.

Get the full analysis of all four 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.

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