Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Marriott, Starwood, National Semiconductor, Kyocera and SunPower.

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CHICAGO--(Business Wire)--
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:
Marriott (NYSE: MAR), Starwood (NYSE: HOT), National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM),
Kyocera (NYSE: KYO) and SunPower (NYSE: STP).

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the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579

Here are highlights from Monday`s Analyst Blog:

Extended Stay Hotels Bankrupt

The current owners of Extended Stay Hotels (private) acquired the chain in June
of 2007, near the peak of the market for hotel assets, for $8 billion. The deal
was highly leveraged, reportedly consisting of $7 billion in debt and only $1
billion in cash. With this amount of leverage, a firm can quickly experience a
crisis if operating results turn lower.

While the leverage levels of most publicly-held hotel companies are
substantially lower than some private firms in the industry, the downturn has
nevertheless taken a significant toll.

Both occupancy levels and room rates are down dramatically in 2009, and the
sharp reductions in room revenues are resulting in significant margin pressure.
The outlook for the industry remains challenging, and we believe that many
investors in the sector remain too optimistic regarding the chances of a
meaningful improvement in operating fundamentals during the second half of the
year.

Despite these clear challenges, hotel company stocks have generally rallied over
the last three months along with the broad market. We believe that this rally
has been unwarranted, and that the stocks are due for a correction. The more
companies cut room rates in an attempt to boost occupancy, the more likely it
becomes that the downturn will last well into 2010, in our opinion.

Given our negative outlook on the group, we reiterate our Sell rating on
Marriott (NYSE: MAR) and Starwood (NYSE: HOT) at this time.

National Semiconductor`s Potential

National Semiconductor's (NYSE: NSM) management strategy appears to be focused
on energy, specifically, in energy generation, consumption and storage. Energy
savings in each of these areas will be an important driver of growth over the
next decade, in not just developing but developed countries as well.

To date, the company has been focused on its core strength in power management
products. It is now extending these capabilities in power management to
alternative energy areas, such as powering for solar panels and LED lighting
products.

Energy generation:

In June 2008, management announced a solar product, which it refers to as the
SolarMagic power optimizer module. The product incorporates National's new
PowerWise power management technology, and works on both thin film and crystal
line glass panels. It significantly increases the efficiency of solar panels,
recouping up to 50% of the power lost in shady areas and when the panels are
mismatched, or become old, or accumulate debris and bird droppings.

The opportunity for growth is expected to be significant, both in new and
retrofit markets. Management stated that approximately 25 million panels were
sold in 2008 by around 10 vendors, including Kyocera (NYSE: KYO), Sanyo, Sharp,
Suntech, Wushi and SunPower (NYSE: STP).

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