Barron's Picks And Pans: Under Armour, CarMax, Lowe's And More

• This weekend's Barron's cover story takes a look at a once-hot apparel company poised for a turnaround.
• Other featured articles offer the prospects for the nation's largest used car purveyor and an Amazon-proof retailer with room for growth.
• The outlooks for undervalued energy stocks and high-yield industrials are also examined.

"Under Armour Stock Is Ready to Rebound," the cover story by Jack Hough, points out this branded performance apparel maker has gone from one of the hottest names to the S&P 500's biggest loser. See why Barron's believes that contrarians who buy Under Armour Inc UAA stock now could see a gain of 30 percent in the next year. But is it a slam dunk?

In "CarMax Could Stall as Risky Loans Rise," Bill Alpert suggests charge-offs and risky loans are rising at no-haggle pricing pioneer CarMax, Inc KMX. Shares of the used-car giant are vulnerable to a 20 percent drop, according to Barron's, at a time when the economy is becoming less friendly to used-car buyers, with personal bankruptcies and interest rates on the rise.

Amey Stone's "8 Undervalued Energy Picks That Can Shine Even With Cheap Oil" offers the latest from Barron's panel of energy experts. Stone sees the price of oil rising by the end of the year, but by how much? The author also suggests ways to profit even if oil prices don't rise much. See why Williams Partners LP WPZ and EOG Resources Inc EOG are among their picks.

Likes its larger rival, Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW is virtually Amazon-proof, according to "Lowe's Shares Could Rise 20% or More" by Andrew Bary. Both companies boast strong outlooks, thanks to a healthy economy and improving real estate markets in most of the country. For investors, though, Lowe's is the better bet as it has more room to lift earnings, says the article.

In Lawrence C. Strauss' "6 Industrial Stocks With Generous Yields," see how industrial stocks look now as dividend-income vehicles after a strong run since Election Day, on a wave of optimism about the possibility of pro-growth policies. Should investors jump into the likes of Caterpillar Inc. CAT and General Electric Company GE just for the yield?

Also In This Week's Barron's

• Why the Federal Reserve has grown more essential as its policies have failed.
• Who is energized by the bull market's breather in March.
• Amazon Web Services as a launch pad for a new generation of start-ups.
• Why asset managers are marrying stock picking to quant models.
• How to make sense of Europe exchange traded funds.
• How empathy can help financial advisors create clients for life.
• Whether the criminal justice system is racist.
• What is anticipated from first-quarter earnings reports.
• Four cheap Asian small caps that can deliver big returns.

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