3 Sleeping Giants Ready to Bounce Higher

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- I've always been the type of investor who never sacrifices value for growth. While there are certainly companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) that are able to offer both qualities, sometimes investors are willing to risk too much on the promises offered by the "soup de jour" of a Chipotle (CMG) or Salesforce.com (CRM).

That's all well and good, except of course until the growth stops. Then what? We turn to the old reliable -- value.

While the word "value" does not always yield a consensus, there are always certain companies that are consistently on a short list of names where it is safe to say the price relative to its potential is likely to appreciate over time - or the stock is undervalued.

Apple is one of them. It systematically does things to widen its lead in any market it chooses. Yet, nobody has been able to comprehensively appraise the company and explain what its true value is.

Although it has received price targets as high as $1,200, the company has recently demonstrated its ceiling is really whatever it wants it to be. From the standpoint of price-to-earnings ratio it has been the cheapest stock on the market for a number of years. How else can it make sense that Facebook (FB) deserves a higher P/E? Apple should be a part of every portfolio and, for that matter, a balanced diet.

Another name that deserves consideration is Oracle (ORCL), a company that continues to be one of the most undervalued on the market today. The company recently announced net income of $3.5 billion, or 69 cents per share, for the period ending in May. This compares favorably to what it produced last year when it earned $3.2 billion and 62 cents per share.

So I continue to wonder how is it possible that a rival such as the aforementioned Salesforce can command a forward P/E that is seven times that of Oracle while it still reports negative earnings?

For that matter, other market leaders such as Cisco (CSCO) and Microsoft (MSFT) continue to be treated with the same level of disrespect, while the market continues to ignore their true value.

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