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: Horizon Offshore (Nasdaq: HOFF), Global Industrials (Nasdaq: GLBL) and Amdocs (NYSE: DOX).

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

Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

Keeping a Buy on Horizon Offshore

Our continued Buy recommendation on Horizon Offshore (Nasdaq: HOFF) shares reflects our long-term positive outlook for the stock given its strong marine construction leverage and attractive valuation. The stock has been under pressure in the recent past, reflecting the market's concerns about the impact of weak near-term natural gas fundamentals on the GoM [Gulf of Mexico] marine construction outlook. We do not expect prices to decline significantly enough to have a meaningful impact on GoM Shelf activity levels. Our earnings estimates and price objective remain unchanged.

Horizon's current backlog supported by written agreements or contract awards stands at approximately $300 million, substantially all of which will be performed in the current year except $20 million that is expected to be performed in 2008. At the end of 2006, the company's debt-to-capitalization ratio stood at 25%. This compares to the year-end 2004 high of 69%. With the underlying demand picture for marine construction services expected to remain fairly robust over the next few years, the company's financial health is expected to improve even further going forward.

The company's significant valuation discount relative to its peer group, based on most conventional valuation metrics, is largely a reflection of its past troubles than lack of future prospects. We believe that HOFF's discount to its closest competitor, Global Industrials (Nasdaq: GLBL), both have approximately one-third market share of the GoM shelf, will narrow as the market gains more confidence in the company's abilities. Our unchanged $20 price objective reflects 2007 P/E [price-to-earnings] and EV/EBITDA [enterprise value-to-earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] multiples of 12.4x and 4.2x, respectively, still lower than the peer group.

Target $40 on Amdocs Shares

We maintain our Buy recommendation for Amdocs (NYSE: DOX), a leading provider of CRM [customer relationship management] and billing software to telecom carriers, as the company is expected to declare the second quarter of fiscal 2007 earning results shortly. Demand for customer care software remains strong as carriers started mainstream selling of bundled IP [Internet protocol]-based solutions. DOX has established its leadership position in the digital-content market as well as in the operating Support System market for the carrier segment.

Management has reduced its fiscal 2007 financial guidance in anticipation of a slowdown in orders from some large carriers in the U.S. and Europe. But we believe this is a temporary setback, and demand is expected to resume in the third quarter once carriers implement large transformation projects to provide further converged and consolidated network solutions.

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

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