Shares prices for the three companies below have risen briskly over the past week, unlike the broad U.S. market. However, these aren't exactly momentum stocks. They're less expensive than their industry peers relative to sales and earnings.

Investors sometimes debate which is better: the "growth" or "value" style of investing. Growth investing generally means favoring companies with rapid gains in sales and earnings and plenty of share price momentum, even if such companies have full-looking valuations. Value investing involves seeking out flawed companies that look likely to improve, and buying their shares on the cheap. Long-term studies of returns for the two styles have produced conflicting results, but broadly suggest that growth stocks do best when markets are rising fast, and value stocks tend to outperform during other periods (the market tumble of 2008 and early 2009 being a notable exception).

Think of the companies that follow as, if not growth-and-value stocks, then value stocks for the impatient. Their low price/sales and price/earnings ratios suggest they're inexpensive, and their resent share-price strength could be a signal that improvements are afoot.

Fairchild Semiconductor

Chip stocks are cheap in general relative to earnings at the moment, which suggests that investors don't quite trust the recent pick-up in sales of computers and electronic gadgets to continue. Fairchild Semiconductor seems especially inexpensive at eight times this year's earnings forecast, about half the average historic price for stocks. Profits for chip companies can disappear quickly when sales dip. Fairchild operated at a loss in each of the past two years. However, recent signs are promising. The company has shuffled its product mix to improve margins, and it has surpassed Wall Street's profit forecast in each of its past four quarters. Estimates for this year have risen in recent weeks.

Arris

Cable operators world-wide are scrambling to accommodate an increase in online video views of more than 30% over the past year. That's proving profitable for Arris, whose specialty is showing cable companies how to manage video and voice traffic efficiently and profitably. Strong overseas sales of late have more than offset a lull in orders from U.S. customers like Time Warner and Comcast, and although sales related to streaming video to mobile devices are still a small part of the overall mix, they are growing quickly. Shares sell for 11 times earnings.

Family Dollar Stores

The trend of shoppers shunning department stores in favor of discount chains has received much attention from Wall Street, and shares of Family Dollar Stores have increased by more than 50% since the stock market peaked in October 2007. Another 15% or so rise, and the stock will hit its all-time high price recorded in 2003. There's reason to believe it's still attractive at its current level of 15 times earnings. The company's sales today are more than 50% greater than they were in 2003. Earnings per share are forecast to increase at a double-digit pace this year and next. The company recently introduced a new point-of-sale system in its stores, which analysts note enables all stores to accept food stamps. That ability allows Family Dollar to take advantage of another trend that bodes poorly for the U.S. economy but well for the company s sales: the number of food-stamp users has increased 20% in a year.