Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Agrium Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless and URS Corp.

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Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:

Agrium a Buy with $100 Targets

In the second quarter, Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported diluted earnings per share of $4.00, more than double from $1.70 in the same quarter of the previous year. The recently completed United Agri-Products (UAP) acquisition is estimated to have contributed $0.70 diluted earnings per share for the reported period of May 5 to June 30.

Rising global prices for nitrogen, potash and phosphate leveraged by strong demand augur well for AGU. The company also has significant free cash flow. Therefore, we rate the shares a Buy with a target of $100.00.

Sprint Nextel at a High Premium

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is a leading provider of business and wireless communications services in the U.S. The company continues to experience lower revenue due to weakness in its wireless business and associated customer retention problems.

Although postpaid churn (customer switch) improved in the recent quarter, it still remains a major concern as overall subscribers have opted for competitive services -- AT&T Wireless (NYSE: T | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) -- possibly associated with complications of Sprint's network integration of CDMA and iDEN technologies. Performance in the recent quarter has been tepid and management provided a disappointing outlook for the remainder of 2008 with further erosion expected of its subscriber base.

URS Long-Term Outlook Good

Of URS Corp.'s (NYSE: URS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) current $17.9 billion backlog, 7.8% is Power, 14% is Infrastructure, 58.1% is Federal and 20.1% is Industrial/Commercial. At this point, the Power sector probably has the best outlook, as the switch appears to be on from coal-fired and oil-fired plants to gas-fired and nuclear-powered plants.

Infrastructure is increasingly being financed through bond issues, which hopefully is a positive. Federal is an unknown until after the election and then we still may be wondering what s happening. Industrial/Commercial is problematic, given the current economic environment. With this scenario, we maintain our Hold opinion for URS; our target price is based on existing market conditions.

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