(MONEY Magazine) – WHIRLPOOL: THROUGH THE RINGER

After several years of disappointing earnings, appliance-maker Whirlpool's stock hit a six-year low on March 1. It looked like currency troubles in Brazil, where Whirlpool owns a compressor manufacturer, would depress first-quarter earnings enough to cast doubt on a promised turnaround.

Wrong. After the market closed that day, Whirlpool announced that it expected to have a double-digit increase in operating profits for the quarter and would buy back $250 million of stock. By March 24, shares had jumped by $9 to $50. So is it too late to buy?

Not necessarily. The stock remains 33% below its 52-week high, and at a P/E of 12, it's still cheap. "Brazil was just near-term pain," said CIBC Oppenheimer's R. Scott Graham, one of three analysts who has upgraded the stock to a "buy." A revamped product line should improve sales growth, Graham says. Annual long-term earnings growth, which has been negative, is now expected to recover to 11%. --KEVIN MAX

IS LA-Z-BOY SITTING PRETTY?

Cruise lines and other leisure stocks are riding high on the notion that baby boomers will spend freely to make the most of their free time. But investors have barely noticed a company that caters to America's real favorite pastime.

La-Z-Boy is expected to report 23% earnings growth in 1999, but at $18.75 the recliner king's stock is trading at just 15.6 times 1999 earnings, making it cheaper than it usually is compared with the S&P 500.

While the stock is up 6% this year, fear of rising interest rates, which hurt the housing market, seem to be keeping it from further gains. That could change. Housing sales remain strong, as does consumer confidence. And La-Z-Boy owns 60% of the recliner market at a time when sit-'n'-snooze chairs are shedding their Archie Bunker image. In fact, recliner sales are growing at a faster rate than sales of furniture overall.

"The brand appeals to a very good demographic: 35- to 55-year-olds who are in their peak spending years and are nesting," says Babson Enterprise II manager Lance James. His fund has 2% of assets in La-Z-Boy stock. --SARAH ROSE

COX CABLE LOOKING LIKE A WALLFLOWER

Cable companies are cutting deals so fast it's getting hard to keep score. In February and March no fewer than 10 acquisitions, system swaps and partnerships involving 15 million subscribers were announced, topped off by the proposed $60 billion union of MediaOne and Comcast.

Left on the sidelines: Wall Street darling Cox Communications. A top-tier firm not long ago, Cox will soon be a distant sixth in subscriber base at a time when mass counts, particularly when negotiating with phone companies or programmers that want access to your system.

Cox isn't likely to be swept up by another operator. The company is so well run that its stock, at $75, trades at a 10% higher price-to-cash-flow multiple than its peers. And an outright sale could have huge tax implications for the Cox family, which owns 73% of the stock. Meanwhile, with Comcast and MediaOne spoken for, it won't be easy for Cox to bulk up. The question then becomes whether investors will keep paying a premium for the company's stock. "We've been this size for a long time," says Ellen East, a Cox spokeswoman. "But we've been far ahead of the industry in rolling out new services," like telephony and high-speed data. --PABLO GALARZA

HASBRO'S FUTURE: A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

What's the best way to profit from The Force? Perhaps by buying shares of Hasbro, the only major licensee for Lucasfilm's Star Wars prequel trilogy. Hasbro acquired Galoob Toys, the maker of Star Wars' small-scale figures and vehicles, for $220 million last fall and paid $750 million in licensing fees directly to Lucasfilm. In return, Hasbro holds the exclusive toy licenses for all three films; its new line will be launched this month with the release of Episode One: The Phantom Menace. Toy sales are expected to hit $1 billion from that film alone. That should increase 1999 earnings by 30%, says Salomon Smith Barney analyst Jill Krutick. Hasbro shares have run up 26% this year to $29.75, but that's still a 23% discount to the S&P 500, as measured by P/E, well below Hasbro's 10% average. --VANESSA RICHARDSON

NET STOCKS TOO CHEAP? TRY THIS

If you thought Internet investing couldn't get more speculative, consider what might happen with the LCM Internet Growth Fund, slated to open this summer. LCM is a closed-end fund. SEC rules keep manager Barry Glasgow from talking so close to an offering, but in theory such a fund could be well suited to the volatile Net sector. That's because closed-ends trade like stocks, notes Greg Wolper, an editor at Morningstar, so their managers needn't worry about redemptions forcing them to sell into a downturn.

In practice, however, Internet mania could drive LCM's share price way above the value of its holdings. And buying Yahoo! for, say, 520 times earnings when everyone else is paying 450 times isn't speculation. It's dementia. --PAT REGNIER