Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: SINA Corp., Whole Foods, Qualcomm and Buckeye Partners.

CHICAGO -- Zacks Equity Research highlights SINA Corp. (Nasdaq: SINA) as the Bull of the Day and Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Buckeye Partners (NYSE: BPL). 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 SINA Corp. (Nasdaq: SINA). SINA, which is the most well-known online brand in China, has continued to perform well in its brand online advertising. SINA increased its lead over its closest competitor in the brand online ad market. Moreover, the Beijing Olympic Games can significantly stimulate the online advertising business in China in the next several quarters. In addition, Shanda doesn't need to sell all its stake of SINA in order to pay off the convertible bonds, which should support SINA shares. Therefore, we are upgrading SINA from Hold to Buy.

Bear of the Day:

Our Bear of the Day recommendation is for Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI). We think there is further downside ahead for the stock. In our view, the company is transitioning from being an exceptional growth story to being just an above-average growth story. The difference is the premium investors are willing to pay for higher-growth stocks. At over 27 times our fiscal 2007 EPS estimate, WFMI shares are still valued like a higher-growth stock. When the company reports slower growth in the quarters ahead, as it announced it would in its fourth quarter report, investors will most likely be disappointed. As a result, we believe the stock will slide down to $30, or about 20 times our fiscal year 2007 EPS estimate.

Analyst Blog:

We maintain our Buy recommendation and raise our target price for Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer of digital wireless chipsets based on CDMA [code division multiple access] technology. The company's fundamentals remain strong as robust wireless industry growth and new service initiatives, such as mobile media and 3G [third generation] technologies, drive healthy sales. The company also generates nearly 33% of sales from recurring royalty income related to intellectual property licensing. Although the company is facing royalty related litigation issues with some of its large customers, we believe continued strength in the 3G wireless market, coupled with superior technology and a cash intensive balance sheet, support the long-term growth prospects of the company. QCOM has given guidance that it will be able to maintain a high rate of average selling price despite facing increased competition.

Buckeye Partners (NYSE: BPL) reported modestly better-than-expected fourth-quarter 2006 results, and also raised its quarterly distribution for the eleventh consecutive quarter. Earnings allocated to limited partners of $29.5 million or $0.75 per unit (our estimate was $0.73 per unit) compares with $27.4 million or $0.72 recorded in the year-ago quarter. Increased pipeline volumes and improved tariffs drove the year-over-year improvement. The partnership's reported net income of $35.8 million includes $6.6 million relating to the impact of an amendment to the incentive compensation agreement between the general partner and the partnership, which changed the incentive compensation paid to the general partner from a compensation payment to a partnership distribution, effective from the fourth quarter of 2006.

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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