Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd, Companhia Paranaense de Energia, Opnext Inc, Health Net Inc and PepsiCo.

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: Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd (NYSE: HMY), Companhia Paranaense de Energia (NYSE: ELP), Opnext Inc (NASDAQ: OPXT), Health Net Inc (NYSE: HNT) and PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Harmony Gold Finds Right Pitch

Formed in 1950, South Africa's Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd (NYSE: HMY) conducts underground and surface gold mining. It is also engaged in related activities such as exploration, processing, smelting and refining. Presently, Harmony is the 3rd largest producer of gold in South Africa, producing about 20% of the country's annual gold output and the 5th largest gold producer in the world.

Harmony Gold is benefiting from higher gold prices in terms of the South African rand. Going forward however, Harmony is focused on lowering its cost structure, primarily by closure of loss-making shafts and reducing its debt level aggressively.

COPEL ADRs at a Nice Price

We are keeping our Buy recommendation on Companhia Paranaense de Energia (NYSE: ELP), or COPEL. The company's 4th quarter results were as expected in view of the difficult business environment around the world.

The outlook for the following quarters remains reasonably positive, mainly considering the growing demand for electricity and a more relaxed monetary policy in Brazil. We expect Brazil to outperform more developed economies in Europe, the U.S. and Japan during the current crisis.

Opnext Seen as Near-Term Hold

Based New Jersey, Opnext Inc (NASDAQ: OPXT) was founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of Hitachi but was later spun-out of its fiber optic components business. The company designs, manufactures, and markets optical modules and components that transmit and receive data. These components enable high-speed telecommunications and data communications networks globally.

Opnext, reported revenues of $70.5 million in Q3:FY09, up 6.2% y/y but down 12.1% q/q. StrataLight contributed approximately $24 million to the quarter. Recently, OPXT closed the acquisition of privately held StrataLight Communications for approximately $92 million.

Health Net May Be Volatile

Health Net Inc (NYSE: HNT) is one of the nation's largest publicly traded multiregional managed care companies. The company recently reported better-than-expected 4Q08 financial results with net income of $63.1M, or EPS of $0.61, compared with $116.9M, or EPS of $1.10 in 4Q07. A highlight of the result was the sequential improvement in both the company's health plan medical loss ratio and G&A ratio.

Given the challenging economic environment, and in particular the company's exposure to the California market, we believe pricing will remain under pressure with earnings volatility potentially high over the medium term.

PepsiCo: "Refresh Everything"

As part of the company's "Refresh Everything" campaign, PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) is introducing three new products: Pepsi Natural, Pepsi Throwback, and Mountain Dew Throwback. All are sweetened with natural sugar.

Pepsi Natural is a premium, all-natural beverage made with natural sugar, natural caramel, kola nut extract and natural apple extract. One of its unique attributes is the amount of foam that rises to the top of beverage when it's poured. Offered in a 12-ounce glass bottle, initially it will be available in 10 regional markets -- Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas and New York -- beginning late March or April.

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