Tuesday's Worst Stocks in the World

Bad days. We all have them; some of us deserve them.

Here are five stocks whose naughty ways drew investors' scorn on Tuesday:

Naughty?
Well, OK, we can't exactly call these stocks naughty. But none of them gets much love from our 76,000-person-strong Motley Fool CAPS community of amateur and professional stock pickers.

To the contrary -- when it comes to these stocks, CAPS investors have gone thumbs-down more often than film critic Roger Ebert. They don't believe any of these stocks are worth owning, and they even think some may be worth shorting.

Which of today's candidates is worst? Read on, dear Fool.

Worse
We begin with Gander Mountain, which was downgraded by an analyst at William Blair & Co. for weak same-store sales.

It's an ironic development, especially since Gander won a key legal battle with peer Cabela's (NYSE:CAB) in July. As a result, it's working on an online store and relaunching its catalog of outdoor gear. But none of that is ringing the cash registers at Gander Mountain ... yet.

Timing may be the biggest problem. The credit crunch has hurt consumer discretionary spending, and warmer-than-usual fall weather may have kept sportsmen out of its stores, Blair says.

I'm not much of a sportsman, so I can't speak to the trends. But I can read financial statements, and thanks to Capital IQ, I can see that Gander Mountain's best fiscal year over the past five for return on capital was at -- wait for it -- 2.7%.

Cabela's, by contrast, has seen declines from the double digits, but it still produced a 7.5% return over the trailing 12 months. 'Nuff said.

Worser
Next up is Doral Financial, which analysts at Sterne Agee opened coverage of Tuesday with a sell rating. Target price: $10, or roughly 44% lower than yesterday's close.

Normally, I'd be skeptical of any analyst that ranks among the lower third of our CAPS contingent, but here, I think Sterne Agee has a point. It says Doral trades for a premium to its Puerto Rican banking peers.

Of course, there's really no way to know how Doral stacks up to peers like Income Investor pick Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP). Restatements and other such shenanigans have made a clear reading of what's up (and what's down) all but impossible.

Or in simpler terms: It's a red light, Fool. Time to hit the brakes.

Worst
But our winner is technology consultant Virtusa, which has earned early release of some 628,000 shares for its founders and venture investors, or 2.75% of the total outstanding, from the typically mandatory 180-day lock-up. Virtusa began trading on Aug. 3, roughly 120 days ago.

Why can't these sellers wait two more months? No one knows. There's no comment in the press release. So, allow me to suggest something crazy: Perhaps the selling is exactly what it looks like. (Grab the parachutes!)

Virtusa and its how-much-can-we-cash-out-now? management team ... Tuesday's worst stock in the CAPS world.

Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think by signing up for CAPS today. It's 100% free to participate.

See you back here tomorrow for more stock horror stories.