Five Buys for a Fourth-Quarter Rally

Going forward, though, the fastest growth is likely to come from the dedicated segment, where J.B. Hunt gets a premium price for taking over a customer's most complex logistical problems. Management says this segment could account for 40% of overall revenue in the future.

But it's actually the results from the company's third leg, its truckload shipping business, that excite me most in the short run. The company managed to get a 5% second-quarter increase in revenue from this segment. That was a very tough time for trucking companies in general, thanks to soaring fuel prices and a shortage of drivers, which pushed up compensation and left rigs at some companies idle. A company that can keep revenue growing through the tough times is likely to be able to do better than competitors when the peak arrives.

Nvidia

Catalyst: Market-share gains, fourth-quarter seasonal peak, customer upgrades to prepare for Microsoft's(MSFT) new operating system.

Beta: 4.01.

Nothing like a distracted competitor to help a company pick up market share. ATI Technologies(ATYT) and Nvidia(NVDA) typically play leapfrog, with one company and then the other launching a new graphics processor to temporarily gain an edge in the market.

This fall that edge looked like it was due to go to Nvidia anyway with the launch of the GeForce 7900GS graphics processor. But the pending acquisition of ATI by Advanced Micro Devices(AMD) looks like it will give Nvidia a stay at the top that's longer than usual.

Nvidia's fall refresh product will beat ATI's to market by a month, and its G80 product will hit the market in early to mid-November. ATI's response, the R600, won't ship until early 2007. The pickup in market share couldn't come at a better time, since the holiday shopping season sees the biggest demand for the kind of high-end PC gaming gear that Nvidia powers. The momentum won't stop with the fourth quarter either. Vista, Microsoft's new operating system due to hit the consumer market in 2007, expands demand for graphics processing in the average PC.

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