5 Top Stocks at Half Price

You love buying your shirts when they go on sale. And who can resist a buy-one-get-one-free offer? So when our stocks go on sale, why do we cry about their low prices?

Smart investors like Warren Buffett or Marty Whitman love it when their stocks are suddenly selling at bargain-basement prices. For them, these companies become no-brainer buys.

The investors who populate the Motley Fool CAPS community also like a bargain, apparently. Below, you'll find five stocks whose shares are selling at least 50% below their 52-week highs, but which still earn top honors from our investor-intelligence database. Consider it a BOGO sale on stocks.

Naturally, we want you to look a bit closer at these stocks before buying. You can get low-priced appliances in the dent-and-ding section of your home-remodeling superstore, but their quality might not be so good. Same thing here: Make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with the company before you plug it into your portfolio.

Take two, they're small
Yes, we're in a recession, but while that might mean we reduce our personal spending habits or delay purchases, it doesn't mean we forego them altogether. CAPS member BuildingWings, a Sigma Designs supporter, wrote late last month that the stock is priced as if the world is about to come to an end:

Seriously?! Under 10 bucks?! I realize we are in the midst of a major global financial meltdown, but has a meteor been spotted hurtling toward the Earth or something? ... This is a fundamentally solid stock. This company has no debt and has been named one of Fortune 100's fastest growing companies 2 years in a row. I don't know about you, but I'm getting in at the 52 week low.

Harvest Energy Trust is another company that investors see as having been unfairly assaulted by the markets. While many CAPS members drool at the 28% dividend yield it sports -- "You gotta looooove that Dividend, baby!" says CAPS All-Star Valleycat. And fadiah is another All-Star who looks at the whole sector of Canadian trusts and sees them as undervalued:

I believe that Canadian Energy trusts are way beaten down, too much selling pressure from funds liquidating at any price to ease their liquidity shortages is the major cause of this drop. so if I buy now I will enjoy a very high yield plus an appreciation of commodity prices when all the hysteria that is invading this market will stop, also a back to normal currency rate between CAD and USD. Do you believe that a country with as high a budget deficit as U.S. will have it is currency appreciated in the coming future....

Remember be Greedy when others are fearful...

Indeed, you can look at competitors like Pengrowth Energy (NYSE:PGH), Penn West Energy (NYSE:PWE), or Provident Energy and see that they have all been walking in lockstep. Of course, there are the lingering tax issues for "Canroys" which may reduce those yummy yields in the future.

Have half a mind
It pays to start your own research on these stocks on Motley Fool CAPS. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made all from a stock's CAPS page.

Sign up today for the completely free service, and tell us whether these stocks are twice as good at half the price.