Diamonds and Dogs

July 30, 2009

Diamond
Insurance Companies

The diamonds for today are insurance companies after several companies have rallied today. The leading financial stocks, such as Lincoln National (LNC), Hartford (HIG), and Aflac (AFL), were mostly up in early trading, buoyed by positive earnings. Even though Lincoln posted net loses, their stock has gone up 12.08% to 23.23 a share. Hartford on the other hand, shocked analysts' estimations with about $0.85 more than expected. HIG is currently up 13.44% to 16.97 a share. The other insurance company diamond, Aflac, has been successful of late, especially after they had signed a definitive agreement to purchase Continental American and its parent holding company, Continental American Insurance Group. This purchase allows Aflac to access the groups' supplemental market. Aflac is 7.9% to 38.25 a share.

Dog
Akamai Technologies Inc.
AKAM

Akamai Tech offers services to increase the speed and improve the delivery of content and applications over the Internet. Intense competition and its inability to meet estimates, Akamai's numbers suffered. Their second-quarter results showed that they were surrendered their revenue growth to hold on to their customers. They have begun to cut prices and seeking weak core demand trends to maintain market share. Akamai downgraded the stock to "Hold" from "Buy" and cut per price target to $20 from $25. Their stocks have dropped $4.38 or 21.47% to 16.02.

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