Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Zillow, Techne, Delta Air Lines, Southwest and United Continental Holdings

CHICAGO, May 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Zacks Equity Research highlights Zillow (Nasdaq: Z)as the Bull of the Day and Techne Corporation (Nasdaq: TECH) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL), Southwest Corporation (NYSE: LUV) and United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL).

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Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Zillow (Nasdaq: Z) Just reported a great quarter, raised revenue guidance and noted that more than half of its traffic is coming from mobile. As a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), it is the Bull of the Day.

There is no doubt that the market is placing a premium on companies that are more mobile based, as usage of smartphones and tablets has exploded. On the most recent earnings call the company noted they are getting 55% of traffic from mobile devices and even more on the weekend.

The company also released a very telling stat. 93 homes were viewed each second on mobile devices during 1Q13. That is an increase of 63% from the year ago period. During 4Q12, that stat was 53 homes per second which represented a year over year growth rate of 47%. So the pace of growth is increasing.

Another segment that saw growth was the mortgage marketplace revenue from mobile. The last time this percentage was released was 3Q12 and it was 20%. The most recent quarter saw 31% of revenues being generated from mobile for the mortgage marketplace.

Zillow operates of a real estate and home-related information marketplace on mobile and the Web. It covers 110 million homes and provides a "Zestimate" or a Zillow provided estimate for homes, townhomes and condominiums. The company has also expanded into the rental industry.

Bear of the Day:

Techne Corporation (Nasdaq: TECH) has been infected with a plague of negative earnings surprises. The company has posted only one positive surprise in the last seven quarters and has seen earnings estimates decline. The stock is a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) and is the Bear of the Day.

The company is currently riding a streak of four negative earnings surprises, and has missed in six of the last seven quarters. Investors generally want management to have a better handle on handling the expectations of Wall Street.

The misses are small, but they are misses nonetheless. The June 2012 quarter saw a 5.8% miss while the September 2012 quarter missed by 5%. The December 2012 quarter posted a negative earnings surprise of 2.6% and that was followed by the most recent miss of 1.1% for the March 2013 quarter that was posted on April 30.

Expectations on the top line have seen similar trouble, with the company coming in light on the top line in each of the misses by as much as $3M or 3.1% and as little as $1M or 1.7%.

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Delta to Boost Shareholder Wealth

Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL), the largest airline company in the U.S., is set to restart its quarterly dividend and has authorised a share repurchase program, over a period of three years. The move is believed to be an attempt by Delta to win back investors' confidence, who have suffered due to the slump in the airline industry.

The airline giant has authorised a share repurchase program of $500 million and will pay a quarterly dividend of 6 cents per share on Sep 10 to the shareholders of record on Aug 9. Delta last paid a dividend in 2003. Together, the dividend and stock buyback program will return $1 billion to the shareholders of Delta. The news showed a favourable impact on the market, which lifted the stock price by 3.21% in the Wednesday trade in NASDAQ to arrive at $18.66.

Delta has sufficient cash to carry out this program. The company exited the first quarter of fiscal 2013 with $3.64 billion in cash and short-term investments and $457 million in free cash flow.

After Southwest Corporation (NYSE: LUV), which pays a quarterly dividend of a penny, Delta will be second among the big airline companies in the U.S. to pay a dividend. Beside these two company's other major airlines like United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) do not pay dividends.

Delta has made several investments to improve operating efficiencies and customer experience, which aided the company to re-initiate shareholders' return. Further, the Atlanta-based company has also considerably reduced its debt in the last 5 years, which reflects its balance sheet strength.

Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=2649.

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