Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Vodafone Group, Digitas, Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Westamerica Bancorp.

CHICAGO -- Zacks Equity Research highlights Vodafone Group (NYSE: VOD) as the Bull of the Day and Digitas, Inc. (Nasdaq: DTAS) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Westamerica Bancorp (Nasdaq: WABC). 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 Vodafone Group (NYSE: VOD), a leading international wireless carrier. We expect the firm to continue to deliver solid operating results, with increasing shareholder returns through higher dividend payments and share repurchases. Momentum is building for the company's 3G (Third Generation) wireless services and Vodafone is gaining market share in most of its key markets. In addition, management stated that Vodafone plans to return GBP 9 billion ($16 billion) to its shareholders this year. Recently, the company sold of its Japanese business entity. We believe this is a step in the right direction as market share and recurring net operating losses had limited improved visibility. Moreover, there is a possibility that the company will sell off its 45% stake in Verizon wireless. We believe this sale will also have a positive impact on the company's financials.

Bear of the Day:

Our Bear of the Day recommendation is for Digitas, Inc. (Nasdaq: DTAS). Digitas recently reported its second quarter results that were slightly better than we expected. However, the company has significantly lowered its revenue and earnings guidance for the remainder of the year due to weakness at several of its key customers. We expect this weakness to continue, and are concerned about the disruptions the high churn rate and low utilization rates have on customers, which has led us to reduce our estimates for the remainder of the year and for 2007. We now expect the company to earn an adjusted $0.50 per share for 2006 down from our previous $0.57 estimate. We have also downgraded shares of DTAS to a Sell from a Hold, as our outlook on the company is murky.

Analyst Blog:

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is one of the world's largest providers of healthcare products in the consumer, pharmaceutical and medical devices market. It has over 200 operating companies around the world and sells its products in more than 175 countries. J&J has an enormously diverse revenue stream consisting of market leading products in all three of its business segments. Unfortunately, given the sheer size of the company's top line J&J also possesses several declining or struggling products. Investment in J&J offers consistency and reliability, but we believe the shares are fairly valued at current levels.

Westamerica Bancorp (Nasdaq: WABC) reported 2nd quarter results mid-day yesterday. EPS was in line with consensus, after management pre-announced back on May 24 that a number of metrics would show decidedly negative comparisons in Q2. As was indicated, Q2 was very weak relative to recent quarters, with most of the pain coming from reduced net interest income. Tax-equivalent NII fell by 4.6% sequentially, but expenses kept rising. The tax-equivalent tangible efficiency ratio increased by 260 bps sequentially to 38.6%. As with last quarter, everything was a little worse than expected (lower non-interest income, higher compensation, and higher non-comp expense), but clearly the big problem was NII. Our estimates and target are falling.

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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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.

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