Get Ready for the Bounce

"Don't catch a falling knife," as the old saw commands. (Pardon my mixing a cutlery metaphor.) The idea of buying a former superstar stock at a discount price has its attractions, but you have to make sure you catch the haft -- not the blade. That's where Motley Fool CAPS comes in.

Today, we once again stand beneath Mr. Market's silverware drawer and measure to see which knives have fallen the farthest. Then we'll call on CAPS to ask which of these stocks -- if any -- Foolish investors believe are ready for a rebound. Let's meet today's list of contenders, drawn from the latest "52-Week Lows" list at Nasdaq.com:

Companies are selected from the "NASDAQ 52-Week Low" list published on Nasdaq.com on the Saturday following close of trading last week. 52-week high and recent price provided by Yahoo! Finance. CAPS ratings from Motley Fool CAPS.

Knives and knaves
If there's one good thing about a broad-based market sell-off, it's that you find a lot of terrific companies getting the old baby-and-bathwater treatment, tossed out on their rosy little bums as if they were bums of another sort. You know -- just know -- that some of these babies are gonna bounce right back once the suds subside.

Fishing around in the drink this week, we've pulled out what looks like a child's toy pyramid of star ratings -- five stocks covering all five levels of ratings in the Foolish toolbox. Because we're fishing only for winners, though, this makes things easy. Naturally, we'll be going with the five-star stock today, and as luck would have it, the company in question is one that our colleagues at Motley Fool Income Investor have already tagged for greatness: gas pipeline owner Copano Energy.

You can learn why Income Investor lead analyst James Early picked Copano any time you choose, simply by signing up for a free trial to the newsletter service. But what about the rest of the rank and file of Fooldom? What do they love about Copano? Let's find out, as we tap into ...

The bull case for Copano Energy
Things have been quiet on the Copano board at CAPS. (Must ... resist ... temptation to joke that everyone's vacationing in the Poconos.) The most recent posting of substance dates way back to December, when CAPS All-Star Tastylunch dropped by to mention:

Copano energy has just made a very smart acquisition. This plus its industry (oil and gas pipeline) will allow to benefit from higher oil prices. [Its] high dividend becomes even more attractive [post-Federal Reserve] rate cuts and will become more so if Fed cuts again.

If you'll forgive my ending on a technical note, sportscliche wrote something back in October 2006 that bears remembering when you look at Copano as a possible investment:

Unlike [master limited partnerships], [Copano] is a [limited liability company]. That means no general partner and no incentive distribution rights to suck money out of the revenue stream. Free cashflow goes straight to the unitholders and cost of capital for new accretive projects is less compared to an MLP.

Indeed, when you compare Copano's 7.1% yield to some of the other dividends on offer in the gas-pipeline sphere, Copano starts looking really good. DevonEnergy (NYSE:DVN), for example, pays just 0.7%. Spectra Energy (NYSE:SE) -- another Income Investor pick, by the way -- pays out a 3.7% yield.

Sure, at 22 times trailing earnings versus just a 12% anticipated growth rate, Copano's stock may not look as though it has a lot of room to rise. Then again, with a dividend this robust, it doesn't have to grow much at all to beat the market.

Time to chime in
The aim of this column isn't just to tell you what I think about Copano Energy -- or even what other CAPS members are saying. We really want to hear your thoughts. Head on over to Motley Fool CAPS, and tell us what you think.

Motley Fool CAPS : It's fun, it's free, and it just might make you famous.