Contents. Introduction 2. Alleghany (Y) 3. Cross Country Healthcare (CCRN) 4. Demand Media (DMD) 5. Douglas Dynamics (PLOW) 6.

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1 $99 VALUE

2 Contents Introduction 2 Alleghany (Y) 3 Cross Country Healthcare (CCRN) 4 Demand Media (DMD) 5 Douglas Dynamics (PLOW) 6 Nvidia (NVDA) 7 Ruckus Wireless (RKUS) 8 ShoreTel Inc. (SHOR) 9 What to Do Next 10 1

3 Introduction The predictive ability of the Zacks #1 rank cannot be denied. An average annual gain of 26% since Beating the S&P 500 by nearly three times during that period. Earning a 43.8% total return from when the stock markets suffered record declines. Now, in this report, you ll receive highlights on 7 stocks from the more than 200 companies that compose the coveted Zacks #1 Ranked list of Strong Buys. Remember only 5% of all stocks covered by the proprietary Zacks Rank system have the promise and potential to beat the market in the next 30 days like these #1 stocks. Inside this report, you ll discover the company financials, earnings data and analysis of these 7 promising companies. The return numbers presented assume no transaction costs. Details of how Zacks calculates performance for the Zacks Rank Portfolios and strategies is available at: 2

4 Alleghany (Y) Alleghany (Y) operates in both the reinsurance and insurance segments. Current year estimates have moved markedly in the right direction lately by 8%, suggesting a solid trend for Y stock. It also doesn t hurt that Y has seen positive surprises over the past four quarters, while it has beaten in five of the last seven quarters. Plus, the stock s industry of insurance property/casualty is ranked in the top 20% overall. It isn t hard to see why Alleghany has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) right now and why we are looking for outperformance from this stock heading into The broader market environment favors financials and there are definitely some good reasons to consider insurance this time around. Y has a great profile from a value perspective, including a B grade on our style score system. So if you are looking for a top security in the insurance sector, consider the often-forgotten about Alleghany. Analysts seem to like what they see and the stock was just upgraded to a Strong Buy, making now the perfect time to give this security a closer look. 3

5 Cross Country Healthcare (CCRN) Cross Country Healthcare (CCRN) is a provider of healthcare staffing services. In its most recent earnings announcement, revenues rose +4% year over year, consolidated gross profit margins were up 130 basis points and revenues from Nurse and Allied Staffing improved 6%. At the end of Q3, the company has $24.6 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand. Due to the strong quarter, management increased Q4 guidance. Also, the company acquired healthcare/education staffing company Mediscan. This addition will be crucial to management s expectation of 15-20% growth for the foreseeable future. After posting a strong Q3 where the company shed their education business and acquired Mediscan, they are now several quarters ahead of where the street expected them to be when it comes to profitability. With increased guidance and improving margins, this company has cemented itself as a market leader of the healthcare labor market. 4

6 Demand Media (DMD) Demand Media (DMD) is a diversified Internet company comprised of several media and marketplace properties. The strategy for Demand Media is twofold. The first part is to be the platform for artists to create and sell their products. These range from phone cases to t-shirts via Society6 to works of art being sold via Saatchi Art. The second end of the strategy is delivering strong content sites to users such as Livestrong. com, ehow and Cracked. The company has topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate in five of the last six quarters. The most recent report on November 11 saw the company post a loss of $0.35, but that was $0.13 or 27% better than the $0.48 loss that was expected. Investors liked what they saw from this report and shares rallied for more than 15% in the session following the release. DMD has seen estimates move higher over the last 30 days, which helped push the stock to a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). 5

7 Douglas Dynamics (PLOW) Douglas Dynamics (PLOW) manufactures snow and ice control equipment for light and heavy duty trucks in the United States and Canada. It seems like every time this company reports earnings it beats. There have been 8 consecutive quarters of earnings surprises to the upside. Over the last four quarters, the average surprise is 11 cents with the most recent quarter coming in at 68 cents versus expectations for 60 cents. The recent surprises may be the reason why analysts have increased earnings estimates for the current year, bringing our Zacks Consensus Estimate to $1.82. For most of 2015 shares have been range bound, trading between $20 and $24. Shares recently spiked to breakout from the top end of the range intraday, but ultimately closed below $24 near $ Five days of selling followed, resulting in shares now trading near the middle of the range at $ But the commodity channel index has settled down close to the zero line after being all the way above 200. An overbought stock that s cooled off a bit recently and may be finding support down here. 6

8 Nvidia (NVDA) Nvidia (NVDA) just crushed earnings expectations for its most recent quarter, posting EPS of 40 cents a share compared to an estimate of just 25 cents. This marked another tremendous beat for the company NVDA beat by 136% in the previous quarter. Thanks to the earnings beat and solid guidance in terms of revenues, analysts have been raising their estimates for NVDA stock as of late. Eleven estimates for the current year have gone higher for NVDA s EPS estimate, while zero have gone lower. There is a similar trend for the next year time frame too. Clearly, analysts expect great things of NVDA in the near future as strong demand continues for their high performance chips and for cloud-based solutions, which is becoming a key area in the computing world. Investors should also note that the semiconductor- general segment is in the top 5% of all segments we track. So, not only is NVDA primed for outperformance, but there is a pretty solid underlying trend in the space too. 7

9 Ruckus Wireless (RKUS) Ruckus Wireless (RKUS) is a pioneer in the wireless infrastructure market, enabling carriers and enterprises to stay ahead of the exploding demand for high-bandwidth applications and services. It provides routers, adapters, and wireless access gateways, as well as managed wireless local area network, backhaul, and triple-play carrier services. Their unique enterprise solutions, which include innovative new products like Cloudpath, Xclaim, and Unleashed, are gaining traction in the industry. The company beat on the top and bottom lines when it reported Q3 earnings on October 29. But shares got slammed down 15% the next day because the company also offered less-than-stellar guidance about the current quarter. Ruckus guided below the consensus due to lengthening sales cycles in Asia and FX headwinds. Then as the dust settled, analysts actually raised EPS estimates, taking this year from $0.13 to $0.16 (GAAP basis) and next year from $0.26 to $0.30. Both the agreement among analysts and the magnitude (on a percentage basis) of their upward earnings estimate revisions caused the Zacks Rank to rise to the top tier. 8

10 ShoreTel Inc. (SHOR) ShoreTel Inc. (SHOR) is a leading provider of enterprise IP telephony solutions. The company s ShoreTel Connect innovation enables a user to use one platform for business communication from the cloud, onsite, or a hybrid combination of both. ShoreTel has a strong history of not only beating earnings expectations, but crushing them. Over the past four quarters the company has an average positive earnings surprise of %. The future expectations for ShoreTel Connect have the stock price accelerating upwards. Over the past 30 days, estimates for Q2 16, Q3 16, FY 16, and FY 17 have all risen. ShoreTel is also expanding beyond the U.S. borders into Canada, the UK, and Australia. The company recently purchased M5 Networks out of Australia, and the acquisition is expected to be accretive within six months. Also, SHOR has a solid balance sheet with $106.1 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments and no outstanding debt. 9

11 What to Do Next In addition to the hand-selected picks included in this special report, you can move yourself way ahead of the crowd in any market environment with the following: As part of this free report, you will now receive our free daily e-newsletter, Profit from the Pros. Each morning, Executive Vice President Steve Reitmeister will summarize the market, what it means for investors and what to do next. Plus you get links to articles featuring some of our top stock, ETF and mutual fund recommendations. Be sure to look for it in your inbox before the markets open every day. Now you should bookmark our homepage to take advantage of one of the most complete investment websites around. Go there now: Even better, get all Zacks private buys and sells through our Zacks Ultimate program. Watch our trades and market insights from all of Zacks private portfolios from growth to value to momentum stocks, from insider moves to big earnings surprises, from options to ETFs, even trades EVP Steve Reitmeister makes in his personal account, and much more. This see-everything arrangement is unique: one month, one dollar, not one cent of further obligation. Learn more about the Zacks Ultimate Trial now. 10