7 Highly Rated Stocks on Sale

I'm always looking for a good deal, whether that means buying an extra box of Golden Grahams when they're on sale, or pouncing on undervalued stocks. The idea that anybody would sell a stock for less than its worth may seem silly, but legendary value investor Ben Graham (no relation to the cereal) tells us, by way of allegory, how we can look out for these situations.

In The Intelligent Investor, Graham introduces readers to a wacky chap named Mr. Market. Mr. Market’s game is to pay you house calls on a daily basis, offering to sell you interests in businesses he owns or to buy from you interests in businesses you own. Sometimes Mr. Market will show up at your door very excited, offering you premium prices for your holdings; at other times, he'll be inconsolably depressed about the future, and will offer to sell you what he has for as low as pennies on the dollar.

To find some of the stocks that Mr. Market is depressed about, I’ve turned once again to The Motley Fool’s CAPS investor community. Each of the companies below had earned a maximum five-star rating by our community of investors just 30 days ago:

Data from Motley Fool CAPS as of Oct. 1.

As the table shows, these stocks are all still very well-regarded by the CAPS community despite their underperformance over the past month. While they're not formal recommendations, they could be a great place to kick off some further research. I'll even get you started with some thoughts on Eaton.

Why so blue?
Why is Eaton's stock down? Why is any stock down lately? Investment banking as an industry has gone kablooey. When the government isn't taking over major financial institutions, it's helping to arrange shotgun weddings. And now we're waiting on the mother of all bailouts to be pushed through.

Meanwhile, the stock market has been on a runaway train to the downside, and pretty much any stock standing in its way has been run over. Enter Eaton.

What the bulls say
As a diversified industrial manufacturer, Eaton is far from flashy. But then again, most investors aren't looking for "flashy" right now. With a wide base of businesses contributing to its $14 billion in revenue, Eaton may not be recession-proof, but it's a far larger and sturdier ship to navigate the current squall. The stock's current 3.7% yield doesn't hurt, either.

CAPS players have been overwhelmingly in favor of Eaton. Nearly 500 rate the stock an outperformer, while just 11 think it will lag the rest of the market. One of those bullish CAPS members, falcon2382, had this to say back in mid-July:

Solid company. Consistent dividend since 1987. The stock has taken a huge hit in response to the machine and automobile industry as a whole ... Yet, Eaton ISN'T the Auto Industry. It is the "let's make the machine and auto industries more efficient"-Industry. There is a big difference. ... This is a great time to get invested in ETN, even if it continues to fall an additional 10%-15% from current levels; just let the dividends buy the stock at a lower price, you'll be happy you did five years from now.

So do you think the recent drop has created a good buying opportunity? Or is there more pain ahead for Eaton? Let the community know what you think -- head over to CAPS and share your thoughts with the other 115,000-plus players currently part of the community. Even if you'd prefer to pass on Eaton, you can check out a couple of the other stocks listed above or any of the 5,400 stocks that are rated on CAPS.

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