Science & Technology 
Science and Technology
Science and Technology 
Fri, February 27, 2009
Zacks Bull & Bear of the Day Highlights: Salesforce.com, California Pizza Kitchen, Sallie Mae, Nelnet and Student Loan Corp
CHICAGO--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Zacks Equity Research picks Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) as Bull of the Day and California Pizza Kitchen, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPKI) as Bear of the Day. In addition, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research discuss the latest on Sallie Mae (NYSE: [ SLM ]), Nelnet Corp. (NYSE: [ NNI ]) and Student Loan Corp. (NYSE: [ STU ]).
Full analysis of all these stocks is available at: [ http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678 ]
Bull of the Day
Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) is the market leader in the on-demand Customer Relationship Management (CRM) space and continues to see substantial subscriber and customer growth.
With strong results in fiscal 2009, the company has exceeded our estimates once again in both top-line and bottom-line growth. Meanwhile, we believe the acquisition of InStranet also makes strategic sense, and over the long-term EPS growth will further accelerate.
We therefore reiterate our Buy rating on Salesforce.com's shares with our six-month price target of $45.00.
Bear of the Day
We expect California Pizza Kitchen, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPKI) to continue to suffer declining traffic, de-leverage of its rent expense, and face shrinking ROEs well into 2H09.
However, we expect CPKI to rebuild momentum in 2010 (primarily through unit growth), grow earnings at a mid-teens average rate over the next five years by adding full service restaurants in existing and new markets (at a rate of about 8%-10% annually), increase comps (we estimate +3% beginning in 2010) and restaurant margins through its new prototype restaurant design, repurchase shares, and build its lucrative Kraft frozen pizza licensing business.
Nevertheless, we expect earnings to deteriorate for at least two quarters with renewed growth dependent on the economy, to which there is no visibility.
Recent Analysis from the Analyst Blog
Budget Proposals Hurt Student Lenders
Since the shift in control of the Congress to the Democrats, there has been, on the whole, more support for direct student lending by the Government. Direct loans, however, only accounted for about 20% of the $68.2 billion in new federal loans during for the 2007-2008 school year, but recently many private lenders had stopped making federally guaranteed loans due to the credit crisis.
Most of the student lenders were heavily reliant on the Asset Backed Security (ABS) market for funding, and had to resort to much more expensive funding sources when the ABS market virtually froze late last year. However, the recent legislative enactments had provided some relief on the funding front for FFELP, since it will (now through 2009-2010 academic year) be financed entirely by government financing -- paid for by the Treasury through the Department of Education.
Further, the recently announced TALF facility, which will provide 3-year term loans to investors against AAA-rated securities backed by recently originated consumer and small-business loans, is also expected to bring down the funding costs.
In addition to higher funding costs, the student lenders have been facing increased defaults recently. The shares of student lenders like Sallie Mae (NYSE: [ SLM ]), Nelnet Corp. (NYSE: [ NNI ]) and Student Loan Corp. (NYSE: [ STU ]) sold off sharply today on the news of the proposals.
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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.
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