Guest Post by Jim Kaplan, Chairman, Audit Integrity The Wall Street Journal article published March 10, entitled “Moody’s Aims to be Ahead of Defaults,” was a real eye-opener, as was the response to the article. Moody’s Corporation has taken a bold and positive step in publishing a list of Companies with the highest probability of default.  [...]

Companies that could issue positive surprises include Becton, Dickinson and Company (BDX), SucessFactors (SFSF) and Sunoco (SUN). Penn Virginia Corporation (PVA) could potentially disappoint investors. The Week's Events November has historically been one of the best months for the major markets, according to the[More...]

We maintain a Hold rating on the shares of ValueClick, Inc. (VCLK), a Westlake Village, California-based online marketing services company. VCLK is currently trading at a P/E multiple of 13.5x our 2008 earnings per share estimate of $0.71, a discount to the industry median. Although over the long-term we are very positive on online advertising growth, current economic conditions are creating significant headwinds for ValueClick and others in the industry. Rising energy prices and falling housing prices have caused consumer confidence to drop, and consumer spending has fallen as a result. With decreased consumer spending, advertisers are cutting back budgets. This has caused what we consider a cyclical decline in Internet advertising dollars. Although there is likely upside to VCLK shares over the longer-term, we[More...]

Georgia Gulf Corp. (GGC) recorded a net income of $27.9 million or $0.80 per diluted share, compared to a net income of $4.2 million or $0.12 per diluted share during the comparable quarter in 2007.[More...]