Tomorrow's Monster Stocks

Stocks climbing to 10 times their original price are rare breeds -- but they're not impossible to find. Especially when you have Fools for friends.

The market's best stocks include companies that have risen dozens of times in value over the past decade. These aren't penny stocks; they're viable companies with sound business prospects, achieving phenomenal returns every year. Finding just one or two of these monstrously successful firms can help you establish a winning portfolio.

Stalking the monster
To find tomorrow's winners, we'll enlist the more than 120,000 monster trackers at Motley Fool CAPS. We've compiled a list of the most successful CAPS members, dubbed All-Stars, whose picks have doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled in price. Then we've plucked out some of their recent picks for stocks they find equally promising.

Player	CAPS Member Rating	Monster Stock	CAPS Score	Recent Stock Pick	CAPS Rating (out of 5)
BravoBevo	99.97	First Solar	547.09	AgFeed Industries (Nasdaq: FEED  )	*****
TMFDeej	99.65	TBS International	358.48	Verizon (NYSE: VZ  )	****
MTBB	92.01	The9 (Nasdaq: NCTY  )	342.92	Frontline (NYSE: FRO  )	****
TrackBofASec	91.79	CF Industries (NYSE: CF  )	305.46	Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD  )	****
JBouchard	88.24	National Oilwell Varco	162.36	Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX  )	*****

Of course, this is not a list of stocks to buy -- or, for those monster stocks that our CAPS All-Stars have already found, sell. Just consider them starting points for your own further research of extreme buying opportunities.

In search of Bigfoot
The potential for an oversupply of tankers would seem a plausible supposition in this market. As demand for oil continues to plummet, the need for more tankers to ship it around will fall as well. Yet it's also possible that with the credit markets as tight as they are, the number of new tankers coming onto the market might not be so great, which would allow Frontline's profit margins to hold up.

Yet CAPS member TheHuney finds other reasons to think the tanker company might not be a strong investment now:

But here's the real kicker; everyone talks about [Frontline]'s wonderful dividend. Of course, what they don't look at is the sheer absurdity of this business model. For FY '07, [Frontline] had earnings per share of $7.62, but [declared] $8.30 cash dividend per share. Also, it's worth noting that they pulled in even less in cash flows from operations at $7.30 per share, so their dividend was 109% of their earnings and 114% of their CFOs. Are you kidding me? How is that sustainable, especially when you have such high leverage?

Worries about the health and stability of the global financial markets persist. Even if we have a rally now and then (like that seen on Friday because of the expected Treasury appointment), fear is still the watchword. CAPS member CorbinB2 thinks Barrick Gold could be a beneficiary, if only the economy would show some stability:

Gold and other precious metals have taken a hit due to liquidation and should increase, just a matter of how long it takes the overall economy to start showing signs of stability.

CAPS member unibeats thinks President-elect Obama’s commitment to improving Internet access for everyone will assist Verizon in further establishing its industry-leading position:

In addition to its attractive cell phone coverage and dataplans, Verizon is one of the largest holders of the fiber optic network within the US. Obama has stated that he will make "Internet more accessible to everyone." The cheapest, simplest, and the most effective way to do that is to lay down more fiber optic backbones, and Verizon will be very happy to do so as the government hands out aids and contracts to make a better Internet a possibility.

A chance for scary growth
It takes more than a few All-Star picks and a quick paragraph to make buy or sell decisions, so start your own research on these stocks on Motley Fool CAPS. You can 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. And while you're there, weigh in with your own thoughts on whether these are tomorrow's monster stocks.