The company has had some recent bad news including January-quarter results showing weaker U.S. sales of implantable cardioverter defibrillators had slipped 10% from the year-earlier level and an FDA advisory panel recommended against approving a new Medtronic wireless heart monitor. But Medtronic's good prognosis hasn't really changed. Medtronic should keep taking defibrillator market share from the Guidant unit of Boston Scientific (BSX)...Lazard analyst Arrow issued a Buy when the drop in Medtronic stock cut its price-earnings multiple to 18.7 times.

On March 5th bookseller Barnes & Noble saw its stock drop more than 11%, to 35.56, after the company issued a dour forecast for its current fiscal year. However, Barron's still view the shares favorably, as do some big investors. Pershing Square Capital Management, a New York hedge fund run by William Ackman, tells Barron's that it plans to hold on to its stake -- just under 10% of the outstanding shares. An official of the hedge fund points to several positives. The company's attempts to improve operating efficiencies appear to be taking hold. The company said last week that higher-than-expected profit margins in the fourth quarter had offset somewhat disappointing sales in that soon-to-be reported period. Stifel Nicolaus analyst David Schick recently upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy. In a report, he says that the company's "good real estate and entrepreneurial culture" make it an ideal candidate to go private. Such a deal would likely occur at a price at least 20% above current levels.

The country's seemingly insatiable need for electricity and its halting progress toward creating more makes the lights shine brighter at Baltimore's Constellation Energy (ticker: CEG). Some analysts believe the shares have 20% or more upside in coming months. They trade at 18 times 2007 consensus earnings estimates of $4.56 a share (up from $3.88 in 2006), a slight discount to estimated year-over-year profit gains of 19% from this year to 2008.

Many concede that the homebuilding problems are a headwind for the Peoria, Ill.-based company. But they also note that Cat's housing exposure is just 8% to 10% of sales, while 50% is outside the U.S., with lots of that in tiger economies like China and India. China alone "sets the company up for the next two or three years". CAT trades at about 12 times consensus estimates of $5.50 per share this year, a pretty reasonable price-to-earnings multiple for a company with few peers.

One shareholder thinks that Openwave is worth at least $12-$14 a share as a buyout candidate. His math: two times fiscal year 2008 sales projections of about $400 million divided by 85 million shares (after an announced stock buyback is completed). That equates to about $9.40 a share, plus $4.70 in cash. "To me, it's a cheap stock," he says. However, Openwave CEO David Peterschmidt is engaged in a testy battle with one of Openwave's biggest shareholders, Harbinger Capital, a $7 billion hedge fund with more than an 11% stake in Openwave (ticker: OPWV). "You have a gem, but it is going to take an effort to get management out of office," says Michael Goldman, chief investment adviser for Abbot Capital Partners in Los Angeles, which has a less-than 1% stake.

The company is a clear leader in a strong field, and its stock, thanks in part to the recent drubbing of tech shares, looks ripe for the buying. Says Yang Lie of Third Avenue Funds: "This is a very well financed company." Another big investor thinks it's worth at least 25% more than the current stock price.

With subprime lenders folding under pressure from bad loans, Countrywide's stock has fallen 18% from its high in February, significantly underperforming the broader market. Yet less than 10% of Countrywide's total loan volume is in the subprime market. Merrill Lynch this week added Countrywide to its list of 10 most attractive value stocks. Legg Mason is the second-largest institutional shareholder; the stock is among the top 10 holdings in portfolio manager Bill Miller's Legg Mason Value Trust, according to StreetSight.net.