(FORTUNE Magazine) – ASPECT TELECOMMUNICATIONS -- You probably can't count the number of times you've heard instructions like "Please stay on the line to maintain your calling priority" or "Press 1 to leave a message." These and other catch phrases of the telecommunications age come to you courtesy of Aspect, a leading maker of the automated answering equipment that instructs incoming callers on how to do everything from checking a bank balance to reaching a flesh-and-blood operator. Since it began in 1985, Aspect, in San Jose, has installed 500 of its call- center units for companies ranging from Nintendo to Mercedes-Benz to Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS). What all its customers share is a growing dependence on telephone equipment for handling customer relations and sales. A single call-center unit sells for $100,000 to $2 million, depending on the number of operator ports and the kind of software a customer chooses; the most expensive units can distribute calls to as many as 1,200 operators. Just under half the company's revenues come from sales of new call centers. The rest is made up of software sales and service to existing customers.

International business, mostly in Britain and the Netherlands, contributes 25% of revenues. Aspect is choosy about which countries it enters, favoring those with relatively low long-distance rates and a population eager to do business over the telephone. Long-distance rates are expected to fall in France and Germany, two markets Aspect hopes to be in by early next year. Steven Levy, an analyst with Hambrecht & Quist in New York City, thinks Aspect's net income will increase 39% in 1994, to $16 million, on a 31% rise in revenues, to $140 million. The stock traded recently on Nasdaq at $34, or 24 times Levy's estimate of 1994 earnings per share. Aspect is far from alone in the call-center market. AT&T has the largest share, but Rockwell International is also a major competitor. "Call centers are our only business," says Aspect CEO James Carreker, citing his company's focus on a single product as its main advantage against those much larger rivals.

LEVEL ONE -- Level One supplies the foot soldiers of high-speed data delivery. The company designs semiconductor chips and other components used for specialized communications functions like computer networking, cellular calling, and faxing. Level One's products are based on a mixed-signal design, a combination of digital and analog circuit technologies. Typical applications for its chips include controlling the switching equipment used to connect telephone calls and transmitting data between computer terminals in local- and wide-area PC networks. The company, in Folsom, California, sells to original-equipment manufacturers such as AT&T, Northern Telecom, and Compaq Computer. John Marren, an analyst at Alex. Brown & Sons in San Francisco, expects 1994 net income to more than double, to $9.3 million, on an 89% surge in revenues, to $50 million. The stock traded recently on Nasdaq at $23.75, or 35 times Marren's estimate of 1994 earnings per share. Level One went public last August at $17 a share.

TANGER FACTORY OUTLET CENTERS -- Factory outlet shopping has come a long way since the days of the bargain basement. Tanger, in Greensboro, North Carolina, owns and operates 17 outlet centers that house a range of retailers, from upscale Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein to practical Liz Claiborne, Reebok, and Tandy. "Consumers look to us for a great tenant mix," says CEO and founder Stanley Tanger, who ran a dress shirt manufacturing company for 30 years before he began Tanger in 1981. The company builds mostly in rural areas, some 25 to 30 miles from major department stores. It plans to open four new centers later this year. Tanger is a real estate investment trust, or REIT, which, unlike other public companies, is exempt from corporate taxes and must distribute 95% of its net earnings to shareholders. James Sullivan, an analyst at Prudential Securities in New York City, says Tanger's shareholders should do quite nicely in 1994. He expects net income to rise 53%, to $13.6 million, on a 66% increase in revenues, to $48 million. The stock traded recently on the New York Stock Exchange for $34.13, or 14 times Sullivan's estimate of 1994 earnings per share. The Tanger family owns 40% of the shares.