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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Yahoo!, Google, Amazon, Facebook and ACE

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 24, 2014 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include the Yahoo! (YHOO-Free Report), Google (GOOGL-Free Report), Amazon (AMZN-Free Report), Facebook (FB-Free Report) and ACE Limited (ACE-Free Report).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Yahoo’s Tough Ride Post-Alibaba IPO

Yahoo!'s (YHOO-Free Report) stock went down by more than 5% yesterday due to investor uncertainty around CEO Marissa Mayer's efforts to turn around the company.

Pre- Alibaba IPO, Yahoo was one of the few options U.S. investors could use to tap into the e-commerce market in China. Owing to its significant stake in Alibaba, Yahoo's stock rose by more than 30% over the past year, largely because of investor excitement about Alibaba's flourishing business.

Yahoo! shares went down 2.7% after Alibaba made its stock market debut on Friday, closing at $40.93.

On the second day of Alibaba’s public trading, Yahoo shares fell 5.5 % to close at $38.65.
Alibaba’s debut has made Yahoo about $5.1 billion wealthier. That's the amount of cash Yahoo is entitled to collect after selling 121.7 million shares out of the 524 million shares it holds in Alibaba and paying capital-gains tax of about 38%.

Backed by one of the most high-profile chief executives — ex-Google (GOOGL-Free Report) exec Marissa Mayer — it is making inroads into the highly lucrative areas of mobile and digital video.

Yahoo has lagged other tech giants like Google and Amazon (AMZN-Free Report). It has also failed to keep up with the advent of social media like Facebook (FB-Free Report). Yahoo has remained stalled in a business that is predicted to dwindle.

Due to the cash influx, Yahoo is now in a position to make major acquisitions. Mayer has resorted to smaller acquisitions to bring on board fresh talent and technology.

But none of these acquisitions have had a significant impact on the core business, which continues to be outdone by very strong competitors. That doesn’t mean the company isn’t making any money at all; it is in fact growing profits.

As a result, the investing community — including hedge funds and private equity firms — are also beginning to revitalize the thought that Yahoo is a good takeover target at present because of its vast trove of cash, other assets and the colossal discounting of its core business.

Yahoo currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Why ACE Ltd. Is Worth Considering

On Sep 23, Zacks Investment Research upgraded ACE Limited (ACE-Free Report) to a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Why the Upgrade?

ACE Limited has witnessed rising earnings estimates on the back positive developments at the company as well as strong second-quarter results. Moreover, this property and casualty insurer delivered positive earnings surprises in the last four quarters, with an average beat of 11.5%.

To help employers with a cost effective way to supplement their underlying major medical plans, ACE introduced GAP Supplement, a new employee-benefit solution. This product is an addition to ACE Accident & Health’s comprehensive line of Supplemental Health and Voluntary Benefits products portfolio.

ACE Limited also unveiled ACE Risk Management Global Casualty that consolidates U.S. and global casualty offerings.

To serve the media companies domiciled outside the USA and Canada, ACE also launched an array of professional indemnity (PI.V) wordings to cater to the risk in this industry.

With respect to last quarter, solid underwriting performances coupled with improved investment results helped ACE Limited to outperform the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 8% and year-ago earnings by 5.7%.

The company remains focused on is efforts to return more value to its shareholders. It also expects to repurchase about $1.5 billion of shares in 2014, of which it has already bought back $700 million in the first seven months. In addition, its dividend yield is better than the industry average.

All the positives prompted a rise in the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2014 over the last 60 days. It increased by a penny to $9.13. The expected long-term growth rate for the stock is 10%.

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.

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