Stock does quiet well.

• Position: Schwitzer Inc. - Company Profile

Want a new toy? Be the first in town to own Schwitzer Inc., an Asheville-based company with stock that's cheap and as much fun as a Sonic Pinball game. You should have little trouble beating your friends to the controls of this gadget. Though it's traded on the New York Stock Exchange and supplies vital engine components to big-name companies, Schwitzer itself is little-known.

Its stock, though, is good for repeated thrills. In 1994 it bounced like popcorn in a popper, bottoming at $5.75 early in the year and jumping to $10.75 by summer. It ended the year at $8, where it traded in early 1995.

Ask your broker about Schwitzer (SCZ-NYSE), and you might get an annual report for Swisher, the Charlotte-based cleaning-services company most memorable for the rubber screens it leaves in restaurant urinals. No, Schwitzer is not Swisher, but you might have to explain that to your broker.

You see, few if any retail brokerages bother to follow it. In fact, BNC was hard-pressed to find specialists in local stocks who had even heard of it. Big Board or no, Schwitzer is darn nigh invisible, thanks to the stock's small capitalization and its young life as a public company. With only 7 million shares outstanding and $56 million in market value (at a share price of $8), it trades thinly. Management owns about 5.9% of shares, and institutions own just under 50%.

"It's a great, nice little company," says Todd Grady, a securities analyst with the Pioneer Group in Boston, a mutual-funds company that's invested in the stock for several years. "It's a very cheap stock, the company is making money, and it has a very nice niche market."

Two-thirds of Schwitzer's sales are in diesel-engine turbochargers used in on-road trucks and off-road construction equipment. A turbo-charger boosts an engine's power by increasing the flow of air and fuel into the cylinders. Schwitzer's largest customer is Caterpillar (an estimated 28% of 1994 sales), followed by Mack Trucks parent Renault (12%). The company also sells to Deere & Co., MAN GHH, Mercedes, Perkins, Ford and Saab. It supplies original equipment to these manufacturers and produces replacement turbochargers for sale in the after-market.

Schwitzer also makes automotive fans, fan drives and vibration dampers - special engine mounts to reduce noise and vibration. All these products are used in the trucking, construction, agriculture, marine and transportation industries. Most of Schwitzer's business is in North America, but...