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Chicago, IL " December 9, 2011 " Stocks featured in this week(TM)s Zacks Industry Rank analysis include Chemical Financial ( CHFC), BOK Financial ( BOKF), Peoples Bank of Ohio ( PEBO) and Farmers and Merchants (OTC: FMAO).Zacks Industry Rank Analysis is written by Dirk Van Dijk, CFA, Chief Equity Strategist, Zacks.com.You have probably never heard of most of these banks on our top regional banks list. Some of them you might recognize if they happen to operate in your town, but it is a fair bet that the names of most of them have never, or at least very rarely, been uttered on CNBC. That, however, does not mean that they cannot be good investments. This is a group that cries out for a package approach. None of the banks on either of the lists are large caps, and even the mid-caps are on the small side of the mid cap range. In fact, taking the two lists together, sub-$100 million micro-caps outnumber firms with market caps over $1 billion by 30 to 9. [Read the full article] With strong brand recognition and well-established operations across all major economies in Latin America, MercadoLibre(MELI) remains one of our favorite investment ideas to capitalize on the region's e-commerce boom, which has been driven by higher Internet adoption and disposable income. We forecast average annual growth of about 24% for the next decade and modest operating margin expansion following a period of investment in IT infrastructure, marketing, and payroll during the next several years.Nevertheless, we think the stock--trading 37% above our $65 fair value estimate--overstates these lofty growth expectations, and we would suggest that investors wait for a wider margin of safety. Signs of a global economic slowdown and softening commodities demand are likely to weigh on export-driven Latin American economies and their currencies in the near term, prompting investors to scale back from emerging-market exposure; this could send the stock down in the coming months. [Read the full article] |





