One of our newest faces, Robert Marcin is the principal of Marcin Asset Management, a private investment firm. Before that, Marcin was a partner at Miller, Anderson & Sherrerd and a managing director at Morgan Stanley, where he managed the MAS Value fund (currently Morgan Stanley Institutional Value). To read more from Marcin, click here. At time of publication, he was long Healthsouth and Dave and Buster's, although positions may change at any time.

Healthsouth

My first pick is Healthsouth (HRC - commentary - Cramer's Take), a provider of outpatient surgery, rehabilitation and diagnostic services. The stock is extraordinarily cheap for a leading health care company; it's currently trading at 11 times cash EPS and six times EV/EBITDA. The company should benefit from the trend toward outpatient services and new government reimbursement programs. Healthsouth should generate solid, stable revenue and earnings growth over the next few years, despite the difficult economy. The stock gained 14 cents Friday to close at $13.39.

Dave and Buster's

My second pick is Dave and Buster's (DAB - commentary - Cramer's Take), a leading entertainment/restaurant operator. The stock is compellingly cheap at seven to nine times calendar 2002 earnings and three to four times EV/EBITDA. The company has recently hired new managers and altered corporate strategy to focus on profitability vs. store growth. Their closest comparable company, CEC Entertainment (CEC - commentary - Cramer's Take) (Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza) trades for 18 times 2002 profits, leaving DAB ample room for valuation expansion. It picked up 18 cents to end at $7.43 Friday.

Longtime tech guru Jim Seymour is president of Seymour Group, an information-strategies consulting firm working with corporate clients in the U.S., Europe and Asia, as well as a veteran columnist for PC Magazine. Although most readers are already familiar with his easy-to-understand explanations of complex technologies, they may best remember his prescient pick of Qwest in late 1998, when it traded at less than $20. It subsequently ran up more than sixfold. To read more of his columns, click here. At time of publication, neither Seymour nor Seymour Group held positions in either of these two securities, although holdings can change at any time.

Compaq

With all the confusion over the proposed Hewlett-Packard acquisition of Compaq (CPQ - commentary - Cramer's Take), this may seem an odd choice. In fact, that acquisition is key: With Compaq's price down, if the merger goes through, Compaq's holders earn a nice premium. But they must sell the Hewlett-Packard shares they receive immediately. And if the merger doesn't go through, Compaq's management will have an incredible incentive to cut, cut, cut and push its profitable businesses to the fore. An independent Compaq's share price could double durnig the next year... even in a rough year for computer outfits. It finished up Friday at $11.50, tacking on 50 cents.

Pfizer

King of Big Pharma, Pfizer (PFE - commentary - Cramer's Take) is in the fat part of the harvesting cycle for brand-name drugs. Led by Lipitor, the company has a handful of leading drugs -- it sells seven of the top 25 drugs, worldwide -- which have years to run before patent protection runs out. Around $40, it's expensive, with a price-to-earnings ratio of about 35 -- but it's well off its 52-week high, and doesn't look cheaper anytime soon. You can take this one to the bank. Pfizer lost 41 cents Friday to close at $40.60.

Also known as The Chartman, Gary B. Smith trades for his own account from his Maryland home using technical analysis. Trading since 1985 with no losing years, he's amassed a loyal following among our readership with his informative and often entertaining style. Smith writes a daily technical analysis column for RealMoney and produces a daily premium product for TheStreet.com called The Chartman's Top Stocks. To read more of his columns, click here. At time of publication, Smith held no positions in his two picks, although positions may change at any time.

Before I talk about my picks, let me confess that looking at anything longer than a few days is completely outside my area of expertise! Shoot, it's like convincing Shaquille O'Neal to become a great sixth man! With that in mind, though, I came up with two candidates with some attractive pictures.

Wal-Mart

My first pick from the long side is Wal-Mart (WMT - commentary - Cramer's Take). I still don't see how this year will end up anything but flat, so I wanted to pick the strongest Dow chart I could find. That belonged to Wal-Mart, as it not only broke that multiyear downtrend line, but also has the added benefit of kicking Kmart's behind! There's safety in size, and Wal-Mart is a good solid place to be. It wound up at $55.80 Friday, down $1.20.

EchoStar Communications

My second pick is EchoStar Communications (DISH - commentary - Cramer's Take). Quite frankly, if I had to pick one Nasdaq 100 Unit Trust stock, this one is it. Why? Because like Wal-Mart, its carnage appears to be over, and this has plenty of upside potential.

Of course, you may wonder why I'm not picking stocks that are making new highs, as I normally do. Remember, when I'm doing that, I'm trading more than anything, looking for small profits, but in short time frames. For stocks that I'm investing in, I generally like a lot of pain to have been absorbed and at least one sign that a return to better times is on the horizon. With EchoStar and Wal-Mart, you have that in spades. EchoStar ticked up 11 cents Friday to end at $29.45.

Cody Willard is president of TelEconomics Consulting, a financial and technology consulting firm, and the founder of TelEconomics.com, a Web site devoted to news and analysis of telecommunications stocks. Since he began highlighting specific stocks in the often-treacherous telecom sector for our site, his portfolio was lately up a whopping 63%. To read more of his analysis, click here. At time of publication, Willard was long Verizon and Enterasys, although positions may change at any time.

Verizon

Verizon (VZ - commentary - Cramer's Take) continues to push into getting approval to provide long-distance in most of its incumbent states. (In 1996, Congress allowed competition in the local telephone-service market, and Verizon along with other Baby Bells were the already established local providers. Verizon is the so-called incumbent carrier in certain states.) We'll see it turn this new line of business into a huge cash cow as it'll simply put the hurt on AT&T's, WorldCom's and Sprint's long-distance businesses -- at least until the company buys one of them.

However, I'm not sure it will even try because the regulatory environment is signaling that the government might not approve such a combo. Additionally, some indications are that long-distance pricing is finally stabilizing, and that's a trend we can expect to see continue throughout 2002. Whether this year or not, the pending wireless spinoff will catalyze a move in the stock, and the company's soon-to-be-improving fundamentals will more than offset any short-term weakness that would result from the company acquiring one of the major long-distance carriers. Verizon is a great, aggressive, growing company with a nice yield to boot. Enough said. It closed Friday at $49.70, up 33 cents.

Enterasys

Let's see: a good balance sheet, a leader or near leader in most all of its product lines, strong sales channels into the military -- a not-just-stabilizing-but-actually-growing sector, good management maximizing business in the bad times and a profitable and growing software subsidiary, Aprisma, due to be spun off in the next couple of months. Granted, Enterasys (ETS - commentary - Cramer's Take) is up some 60% since my first recommendation, but while I could see the stock dip back to $8 or $9 on any pullback, I sure think we'll see it higher than its current level by year-end. It gained 35 cents to wrap up Friday at $10.42.

To return to Part 1, please click here.

Columnist	Stock	Jan. 11 Close	52-Week High	52-Week Low	Market Cap
ROBERT MARCIN	Healthsouth (HRC:NYSE)	$13.39	$18.49	$11.25	$5.25 billion
	Dave and Buster's (DAB:NYSE)	7.43	10.85	5.19	96.3 million
JIM SEYMOUR	Compaq (CPQ:NYSE)	11.50	25.00	7.26	19.48 billion
	Pfizer (PFE:NYSE)	40.60	46.71	34.00	255.2 billion
GARY B. SMITH	Wal-Mart (WMT:NYSE)	55.80	58.74	42.00	248.7 billion
	EchoStar (DISH:Nasdaq)	29.45	39.03	19.49	14.11 billion
CODY WILLARD	Verizon (VZ:NYSE)	49.70	57.40	43.80	134.9 billion
	Enterasys (ETS:NYSE)	10.42	24.50	4.90	2.06 billion
Source: RealMoney.com, Yahoo! Finance