TSC Ratings' Updates: Intel

However, Valley, with its decline in revenue, underperformed the industry average of 17.1%. Since the same quarter a year ago, revenue dropped by 3.5%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, with increasing earnings per share.

The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased year-over-year. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. Compared with other commercial banks industry and the overall market, Valley's ROE exceeds the industry average and the S&P 500.

Valley's share price has not changed much in the past year due to the relatively weak year-over-year performance of the overall market, the company's stagnant earnings and other mixed results. Still, the stock remains expensive compared with other similar companies. We feel, however, that other strengths this company displays compensate for this.

Valley had been rated a hold in November 2007.

Being downgraded to hold from buy was Jones Lang Lasalle(JLL Quote). The Chicago-based firm provides integrated real estate and investment management services. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed -- some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks.

The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.42, is low and is below the industry average, implying successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.11, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.

The gross profit margin for Jones Lang is currently extremely low, coming in at 8.60%. It has decreased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of 3.90% trails that of the industry average.