Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Zumiez, Guess?, Vivo Participacoes, Telemig and Tim Participacoes.

CHICAGO -- Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Zumiez (Nasdaq: ZUMZ), Guess? (NYSE: GES), Vivo

See the latest posts to the Analyst Blog by visiting: http://at.zacks.com/?id=2673.

Here are highlights from Wednesday's Analyst Blog:

Tomorrow's Retail Sales

On Thursday, retailers are going to report same-store sales for October, which is also the end of the third quarter for most retailers. We continue to expect downright ugly numbers from most retailers. There will be a lot of blame on the weather (too warm) and housing (too cold), but we think there will be a just right reports that beat speed-bump-high expectations.

We've been negative on the consumer and the retail sector since this summer, and we are not changing our opinion now. We remain negative on most stocks in the sector except a few names that are leaders in their respective niches. That said, we think the negativity is currently so pervasive in the retailer stocks that the stage is set for a nice pop on the October same-store sales data. In other words, expectations are so low that it will extremely difficult for the retailers to disappoint.

One stock we like heading into tomorrow's numbers is Zumiez (Nasdaq: ZUMZ). Its business continues to grow, and its stock is down more than 30% in less than a month. Remember the Guess? (NYSE: GES) press release yesterday? The company announced that business was strong and increased its full-year EPS guidance by $0.06. Its stock popped about 15%. Consumer spending is clearly slowing, not stopped altogether. Focus on the retailers where they are still shopping. They are still shopping at both of those stores.

Vivo Participacoes Alive & Well

We are keeping our Buy recommendation on Vivo Participacoes S.A. (NYSE: VIV). The company has a dominant position and a strong brand in the fast growing Brazilian wireless business. Third quarter operating results were positive, and the short-term outlook remains encouraging.

Meanwhile, the improvement in the Brazilian economic environment will eventually lead to Brazil being upgraded to investment grade within the next twelve months. Finally, the acquisition of Telemig (NYSE: TMB) coupled with the new bands in all the regions where the company was not yet authorized to operate were very positive news.

Presently, Vivo is trading at 112x our estimated 2007 earnings, and 6.9x its enterprise value to 2007 EBITDA (a more common valuation metric for the wireless industry). The very high P/E is a result of the low expected net income, since the company has been recovering from a difficult period. In this case, we believe it is better to analyze the EV/EBITDA ratio.

We understand the current valuation of VIV is attractive if compared to Tim Participacoes (NYSE: TSU), its biggest competitor in the Brazilian market. Moreover, if we analyze the price/sales ratio the stock also seems to be highly undervalued.

See the latest posts to the Analyst Blog by visiting http://at.zacks.com/?id=2645.

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