Dykstra: Fall Classics

Nothing harder than being given your chance. At least, that's what I hear. -- Uncle Joe from "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens.

I know it will come as a shock to most, but I am not a literary buff. While I may know precious little about literature, however, I do know Uncle Joe was certainly on the money with his statement. With great expectations in mind, here are my picks for the week.

Home Run

PetSmart is the largest specialty retailer of services and products for pets. The company operates more than 760 retail stores in the U.S. and Canada, a growing number of PetsHotels, a large pet supply catalog business, and it's the Internet's leading provider of pet products and information (www.PetSmart.com).

PetSmart provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and supplies and offers complete pet training, grooming and adoption services. Since 1994, PetSmart Charities, an independent 501(c)3 organization, has donated more than $39 million to animal welfare programs and, through its in-store adoption programs, has saved the lives of more than 2 million pets. Also, PetSmart is recession proof. Yes, "recession proof!"

After all, many people have more intimate relationships with their pets than they do with their spouses. We will do virtually anything to make our pets happy.

The company boasts return on equity (ROE) of over 20%, which compares favorably with its forward price-to-earnings ratio of 15.7. PetSmart had free cash flow of $126.4 million in the past 12 months and has a modest debt-to-equity ratio of 0.3. Even after Monday's 4.4% bounce, I think the stock has upside potential and wouldn't be a seller until it hits technical resistance at $24.65.

Triple

Israeli-based Koor Industries is active in the fields of telecommunications, defense electronics, agro-chemicals and other chemicals, and venture capital investment. The company provides digital telecommunications products for evolving new services and converging networks in approximately 145 countries. It also provides switching and networking products to various countries in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia Pacific. Koor Industries also develops and manufactures defense electronic system products for air, sea, and land deployment in approximately 25 countries.

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