With the shares off some 63% from their 2006 peak, it might seem like a good time to take the plunge into Pool Corp., the leading wholesale distributor of swimming-pool equipment and related products. If you do dive in, be sure to have a life preserver at hand.The company, based outside New Orleans, faces big problems. Sales of new pools are in a free fall, a casualty of the horrific housing market. And many families that already have pools may soon start cutting back on maintenance, to save money as the recession drags on. The cool, dreary weather that kicked off summer in many parts of the country didn't help matters, either. "I couldn't imagine a worse environment for this company," says Shawn Kravetz, founder and principal of Boston-based Esplanade Capital Management, noting Pool's presence in the most troubled real-estate markets and consumers' increasing reluctance to spend. Not unreasonably, he thinks the shares, now trading at about $18 apiece, are probably worth just 10 to 12.

Based on their 7% dividend yield, Santander shares should offer a total annual return of 10% to 15% in the next few years -- possibly more, depending on the global economy.

Even in the expanding retail wasteland last year, Bed Bath shares climbed 11%. Management smarts and trim financials could mean 25% more upside in the year ahead.

If Goldman Sachs can continue to post quarterly profits of $4 to $5 a share next year, its shares could trade as high as $200, up from the $157 they were fetching late Friday.

Undaunted by the recession, Baxter International (BAX) increased second-quarter profits 8% and padded its 2009 forecast, which doesn't even factor in any contribution from making much-coveted vaccines for H1N1 flu. But with Wall Street nearly unanimous in its embrace -- 13 of 15 analysts who cover the stock rate it "Buy," and shares trading near 55 are pushing the consensus price target of 60 -- a threat lurks in the near term. A rural hospital in Missouri last week filed a class-action suit against Baxter, alleging it conspired with an Australian competitor, CSL (CSL.Australia), to fix prices of blood-plasma products. A Baxter spokesman said the Deerfield, Ill., medical-products giant has yet to see the lawsuit, and declined to comment. Whether the suit has merit remains to be seen. Barron's is a fan of Baxter's stability and long-term prospects (see "Time for a Nice Shot in the Arm," March 2), but the scrutiny this creates could prove troublesome, since plasma products drive a big chunk of Baxter's cash flow and nearly 20% of revenue.

Take Robert Half International (RHI), which focuses on financial services and could bounce back with a swift resurrection of Wall Street. With no debt and strong cash flow, the stock has handily out-gunned the S&P 500 since the recession began and now fetches 56 times 2010 earnings. Cost cuts helped it stay profitable through the downturn, and bulls now hope to glimpse a cyclical upswing when it reports earnings Tuesday. Eric Ross, Canaccord Adams' director of research, isn't in that camp. "This is a 2011 story, and we believe investors are buying it too early," he argues. Besides the unsustainable valuation, "government officials are warning this recovery could be 'jobless,' and unemployment is likely to remain high." Sure, Robert Half's bedrock temporary-staffing unit could conceivably benefit when employers ramp up without committing to full-time hiring, but its white-collar focus means it may recover later in the economic cycle than more blue-collar rivals like Manpower (MAN). Its consulting business will continue to face pressure until customers feel more flush, while permanent placements tend to pick up only after the economy has clearly recovered.

Product mix and geographic diversity so far have insulated ABB (ABB) from the worst of the recession, and it looks well positioned to prosper. Its balance sheet is still one of the best in the industry, with $2 billion in net debt and nearly $5 billion in cash giving the company a solid financial buffer and a war chest for acquisitions. Those prospects aren't reflected in ABB's shares. The stock has shed about one-third of its value during the past 12 months; late Friday, ABB's American depositary receipts were trading at $16.15. The Dow Jones Europe Stoxx 600 industrial-goods and services sector has fallen about 25% during the same period. ABB trades at a trailing 12-month average price/earnings ratio of 11.3 times."ABB is definitely one blue-chip stock to have," says Dieter Buchholz, asset manager at Falcon Private Bank in Zurich. "Emerging countries need power infrastructure, and that will benefit ABB. Automation and robotics are suffering now, but once the recession ends, these businesses will grow again." The company's annual revenue of about $35 billion is split almost equally between the power-related businesses and automation and robotics units. Automation and robotics have been squeezed in the downturn, as demand evaporated in Western Europe and the U.S. But the power businesses, which manufacture power-switching equipment and transformers, and install transmission and distribution grids, have seen demand remain strong, especially from emerging markets such as China and India.

Snow Leopard is faster overall than Leopard, too. Boot-up with a recent 13" MacBook took 30 seconds running Snow Leopard, compared with 50 seconds or more with Leopard. Other Snow Leopard technologies will in time enable Macs to squeeze more computing power from microprocessors and graphics processors, which will lead to more speed increases. That fast, dazzling experience, and Snow Leopard's budget price, may help Apple upstage Microsoft and stay ahead of the wave of ultra-cheap Netbooks flooding the market.