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The following are today's upgrades for Validea's Book/Market Investor model based on the published strategy of Joseph Piotroski. This value-quant strategy screens for high book-to-market stocks, and then separates out financially sound firms by looking at a host of improving financial criteria.

BLACKROCK TCP CAPITAL CORP (TCPC) is a small-cap growth stock in the Investment Services industry. The rating according to our strategy based on Joseph Piotroski changed from 0% to 80% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.

Company Description: BlackRock TCP Capital Corp. is an externally managed, closed-end, non-diversified management investment company. The Company's investment objective is to achieve high total returns through current income and capital appreciation. The Company invests primarily in the debt of middle-market companies, as well as small businesses, including senior secured loans, junior loans, mezzanine debt and bonds. It invests in various industries, including airlines, automobiles, building products, capital markets, commercial services and supplies, communications equipment, construction and engineering, consumer finance, containers and packaging, distributors, diversified consumer services, diversified financial services, diversified telecommunication services, electric utilities, and others. Its investment portfolio consisted of 142 portfolio companies and is invested in debt investments, primarily in senior secured debt.

The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.

Detailed Analysis of BLACKROCK TCP CAPITAL CORP

PIONEER BANCORP INC (PBFS) is a small-cap value stock in the Money Center Banks industry. The rating according to our strategy based on Joseph Piotroski changed from 0% to 80% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.

Company Description: Pioneer Bancorp, Inc. operates principally through its wholly owned subsidiary, Pioneer Bank (the Bank), a New York state chartered savings bank. The Bank operates approximately 22 retail banking offices in Albany, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady and Warren Counties in New York. The Company accepts deposits from the general public and municipalities and uses those funds along with advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York and funds generated from operations to originate commercial real estate loans, commercial and industrial loans, commercial construction loans and home equity loans and lines of credit and, to a lesser extent, consumer loans. It also invests in securities, which consist primarily of U.S. Government and agency obligations, municipal obligations and Federal Home Loan Bank of New York stock. It also offers a variety of deposit accounts, including demand accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts and certificate of deposit accounts.

The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.

Detailed Analysis of PIONEER BANCORP INC

About Joseph Piotroski: Piotroski isn't your typical Wall Street big shot. In fact, he's not even a professional investor. He's a good old numbers-crunching accountant and college professor. But in 2000, shortly after he started teaching at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, Piotroski published a groundbreaking paper in the Journal of Accounting Research entitled "Value Investing: The Use of Historical Financial Statement Information to Separate Winners from Losers". In it, Piotroski laid out an accounting-based stock-selection/shorting method that produced a 23 percent average annual back-tested return from 1976 through 1996 -- more than double the S&P 500's gain during that time. Piotroski's findings were reported in major financial publiations like SmartMoney. Today, he teaches accounting at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

About Validea: Validea is aninvestment researchservice that follows the published strategies of investment legends. Validea offers both stock analysis and model portfolios based on gurus who have outperformed the market over the long-term, including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and Martin Zweig. For more information about Validea, click here

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.