Ford Motor, Toyota, Microsoft Corporation, Prudential Financial Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.

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: Ford Motor (NYSE: [ F ]), Toyota (NYSE: [ TM ]), Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: [ MSFT ]), Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: [ PRU ]) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: [ WFC ]).

"A system and method for the separate manipulation of the architecture and content of a document, particularly for data representation and transformations"

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Here are highlights from Thursday's Analyst Blog:

Ford Shares Hit 4-Year High

Shares of Ford Motor (NYSE: [ F ]) exceeded $10 for the first time in more than four years on Dec 23 as the automaker continues to benefit from market share gains and other successes. The shares rose 18 cents to $10.08 on Dec 23 compared to Dec 22.

This is a recovery from a historic low of $1.50 in March this year, helped by the company's aggressive restructuring plan, which also helped it bypass bankruptcy unlike its cross town rivals General Motors and Chrysler Group.

According to Autodata, Ford's market share has climbed 1 percentage point to nearly 20% during the first 11 months of the year. In November, the automaker succeeded in sustaining a strong position in the U.S. market by posting flat sales at 122,846 vehicles. The automaker's sales of crossovers grew 26% while its car sales rose 14%, driven by a fuel-efficient product line.

Ford's sales in Europe's 19 core markets have leapt 19.8% to 113,100 vehicles in November. This resulted in a year-to-date market share of 9.1% for the company, the highest since 1999.

The European sales included a registration of 99,800 Ford cars, the highest since November 1999. The automaker's market share in the month went up in 14 out of 19 European markets.

Recently, a report suggested that the projected resale value of 2010 Ford vehicles (Ford, Lincoln and Mercury) after 36 months in service has gone up by an average of $1,310 per vehicle compared to the 2009 model year. This is the largest increase compared to other automakers based in the U.S.

With this, some of Ford's vehicles have also succeeded in defeating Asian automakers including Toyota (NYSE: [ TM ]), based on residual value after 36 months in service. For example, the 2010 Ford Fusion midsized sedan has been expected to be worth more than the 2010 Toyota Camry by $687. The residual value of the 2010 Ford Flex full-sized crossover also commands a $1,800 premium over Toyota Highlander.

Microsoft Loses to i4i

Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: [ MSFT ]), one of the world's largest software companies, has lost another battle. The company has been slapped with a $290 million penalty for infringement of Canada-based i4i's patent number 5787449.

The description of the i4i patent is very broad—"A system and method for the separate manipulation of the architecture and content of a document, particularly for data representation and transformations". What it basically means is, the software enables editing of data presented in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format.

XML is an open standard programming language defined, recommended and maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. It enables the organization and presentation of data through the allotment of tags and descriptions, resulting in structured computer documents.

The i4i technology is integral to Microsoft Word versions 2003 and 2007, a part of the respective Microsoft office packages.

Accordingly, the federal appeals court has upheld the Aug 2009 decision of the Texas Court, requiring Microsoft to pay hefty damages to i4i and stop selling any more products incorporating the offending technology. Moreover, while the company is not debarred from supporting current Word users, it is no longer allowed to help purchasers of the new version Word after Jan 11, 2009.

Rating Action on Prudential

Earlier during the week, Fitch Rating affirmed the "BBB+" long-term issuer default and the "BBB" senior debt ratings on Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: [ PRU ]) and improved its outlook to "stable" from "negative". The rating action follows the announcement made earlier during the month by Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: [ WFC ]) to purchase the 38% stake of Prudential in its retail brokerage joint venture (JV), Wells Fargo Advisors, for a cash payment of $4.5 billion. The deal is likely to close by Dec 31, 2009. These funds will add to the company's capital.

The retail brokerage JV was initially launched by Wachovia Corp. (owning 62%) with Prudential in July 2003. However, post Wachovia acquisition in Dec 2008, the JV also became the property of Wells Fargo. The company at the time of the Wachovia acquisition had reportedly assumed that it would acquire Prudential's stake in the near future. The acquisition will now give complete control to Wells Fargo. Prudential, however, moves ahead with the sale of its stake to boost its finances.

Prudential with its right business mix is favorably positioned to drive double-digit earnings growth and is poised to grow its earnings and expand its return on equity faster than its peers over the next several years. Prudential has among the strongest balance sheets in the life industry following its recent capital raises. It has a strong international presence that provides it with organic growth opportunities, which is not available to many of its peers As a result, the company should be able to maintain its ratings and invest in its business despite the prospect of high investment losses.

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Ford Motor, Toyota, Microsoft Corporation, Prudential Financial Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.