From Barron's 8-19-07: Neutral - Price 52.37 on Aug. 14 by UBS Securities Raising our rating on Allstate to Neutral, from Sell, and reducing our price target to 59. Allstate's shares are down 20% year-to-date [versus] UBS Property & Casualty index, down 3.3%. Underperform[ance] is due to fears over subprime mortgage exposure and two quarters of earnings misses. With shares trading at just under 1.5 times book value and an estimated [return on equity] in 2008 of 17.5%, we see little downside to current valuation. Auto-insurance-loss cost comparisons get easier for Allstate in 2H07...if we assume a 25% deterioration in ALL's $6.1 billion of subprime and Alt-A RMBS exposure, which appears unlikely, with 94% rated [triple-A/double-A], it would reduce book value by less than 5%.

From Barron's 8-19-07: Hold - Price 30.46 on Aug. 13 by Brean Murray, Carret & Co. Maintaining our Hold rating (for now). Topline, revenues of $12 million were above our $10.4 million estimate. Bottom line, earning per share of 18 cents [was] two cents shy of our and consensus estimate of 20 cents...insignificant from a valuation perspective...A cursory glance at new projects already under way, potential new opportunities in existing territories and increasing demand in major operational regions all point to growing revenues and earnings over the next several years.

From Barron's 8-19-07: Strong Buy - Price 17.20 on Aug. 15 by Capstone Investments IHC is principally engaged in the health- and life-insurance business...IHC has recently begun selling high-deductible major-medical products...Q207 results: total revenues increased 15% to $105.1 million...Pretax profits increased 73% to $6.2 million. Book value was $15.50 per common share, an increase of 1.8% primarily reflecting higher net income. We are lowering our earnings estimates for FY07 to $1.40 from $1.75 to reflect continued competition in the medical stop-loss segment...and our FY08 to $2.25 from $2.75...and lowering target to 28.50 from 34.

From Barron's 8-19-07: Buy - Price 23.57 on Aug. 14 by Wedbush Morgan Management [said] that costs of [the latest] recall were part of the $30 million reduction in 2Q operating income announced two weeks [earlier]....we do not believe this latest development has any longer-term impact on Mattel's value. We believe the lead paint incident was the result of carelessness on the part of supplier to a factory Mattel will no longer use...Therefore, we believe any [recall-related] weakness in MAT's share price...is an opportunity to buy the stock. Maintaining Buy and 32 target...For 12 months ending mid-'09, we expect EPS of about $1.87, and we expect the shares to reflect a P/E multiple of about 17, similar to its current valuation on forward 12-month EPS. Risks:...higher-than-expected costs, stalled Barbie recovery and greater-than-expected fallout from Fisher-Price recall.

From Barron's 8-19-07: Outperform - Price 16.45 on Aug. 15 by Baird Securities The acquisition of JDS Pharmaceuticals adds a 55-person salesforce and up to six new products to NOVN portfolio. We believe this acquisition will be accretive to NOVN in 2009 and 2010 assuming the approval of Stavzor [for bipolar disorder, migraines & epilepsy]...Market cap: $418 million. Our price target of 24 is 22.5 times our '08 EPS estimate of $1.13.

From Barron's 8-19-07: Outperform - Price 15.65 on Aug. 14 by Raymond James Compelling 2Q07 results: SDXC reported [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] of $9.8 million versus our $9.4 million estimate and consensus $9.2 million...[due to] better-than-expected cabinet and interconnect sales as well as higher-than-expected average revenue per cabinet...We believe that revenues in these markets are producing solid mid-teens revenue growth. We arrive at our 22 price target using an enterprise value/Ebitda analysis, where we apply a 15 times multiple to our 2008 Ebitda estimate.

From Barron's 8-19-07: Market Perform - Price 46. 17 on Aug. 14 by Morgan Keegan WMT reported Q2 EPS of 76 cents, including a gain of 4 cents related to nonrecurring items. Excluding this gain, EPS of 72 cents fell short of the consensus estimate and our estimate of 76 cents. Guidance for Q3 is EPS of 62 to 65 cents and comps of +1% to 3%. FY08 guidance is $3.05-$3.13 (prior guidance: $3.15-3.23)...Though we believe the current valuation of 7.1 times our [next 12 months] Ebitda estimate represents a solid entry point for longer-term investors, we reiterate Market Perform rating and remain cautious going into the second half of the year.