3. Nuance Communications
Ticker: NUAN
Market cap: $7 billion
YTD returns: 20%

You may hate talking to a robot on the other end of the telephone line, but investors of Nuance Communications (NUAN) are big fans.

Nuance provides the speech recognition technology for everything from call centers to your smartphone. And the company is branching out to work with tablet makers.

Shares of the company are up 20%, and are likely to climb higher as speech recognition technology expands its reach to different devices and users.

The company is also a takeover target since it has a patent on its speech-recognition technology, says Don Easley, Don Easley, portfolio manager of the T. Rowe Price Diversified Mid-cap Growth Fund (PRDMX). Recent reports have suggested that the company has been in talks with iPad maker Apple (AAPL).


Last updated May 20 2011: 5:01 PM ET
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