(FORTUNE Magazine) – KINETIC CONCEPTS INC. -- Many hospital patients are subject to complications such as bedsores and pneumonia that can cause discomfort, even death. Kinetic Concepts claims that the specialized beds it rents to hospitals help reduce these problems and can speed a patient's release. One electronically controlled model gently inflates and deflates air cushions along its length, an undulation that reduces pressure on any one part of the body and allows increased blood flow to the skin. The company says this can prevent bedsores and alleviate the pain experienced by burn victims and others who must lie on top of their wounds. Another of Kinetic's beds (above), designed for patients who must remain immobile, rocks them from side to side to keep the body fluids moving. That can help avert pneumonia. Analyst Joy Thompson of the Atlanta brokerage firm Marshall & Co. believes that the U.S. market for such superspecialized beds -- which rent for up to $150 a day each -- could grow from $350 million annually to $1 billion in five years. She expects Kinetic to nearly double its profits in 1988, to $29 million on sales of $167 million. Its shares trade over the counter.

NU-WEST INDUSTRIES INC. -- Economists think 1989 may be the year that fertilizer ends up smelling like roses, as farmers plant more acreage to compensate for bad harvests. The outlook is so promising that Nu-West, a Denver producer, is planning to go public in October. CEO Cleve McCarty, 63, founded the company just last year, buying a shut-down Idaho plant that produced high-phosphorous fertilizer used on the wheat and corn crops. He recalled laid-off workers, renovated the plant, and then added speciality fertilizers for fruits and vegetables. In May the company bought a second factory and began shipping to India and Spain. Says McCarty: ''It is planting time somewhere in the world all the time.'' He expects earnings to rise over 300% this year, to $30 million on sales of $200 million.

SEA CONTAINERS LTD. -- Expanding world trade has brought new buoyancy to this Bermuda-based lessor of seagoing cargo containers. The outfit, which also leases ships and runs ferries, sat dead in the water in 1986, stalled by a sudden oversupply of containers. The company survived by tightening operations and dropping unprofitable ferry routes. Now demand for containers far outstrips supply, and profits topped $43 million last year. Security analyst Michael Carstens of Tucker Anthony in New York believes the stock's price, recently $25 a share on the New York exchange, could almost double within a year.

IDB COMMUNICATIONS GROUP INC. -- This uncommon carrier, though just a pipsqueak compared with AT&T, has grown 90% since 1986. Security analysts say IDB's net income could rise 45% this year, to $2.6 million on sales of over $20 million. Using a network of satellite earth stations and transponders, IDB transmits television, radio, or data signals for the TV networks' news divisions and other customers. The company started out in 1983, sending live sports coverage back to teams' hometown radio stations. IDB now transmits almost all the major sports leagues' away games. The company, whose shares trade over the counter, routinely delivers such TV programming as Wheel of Fortune, and U.S. news networks used its dishes to provide live coverage of the recent Moscow summit.