5 Top Stocks at Half Price

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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 bargains, 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:

Stock	CAPS Rating	% Off 52-Week High
Noble (NYSE: NE)	*****	65%
Pengrowth Energy Trust (NYSE: PGH)	*****	62%
Petro-Canada (NYSE: PCZ)	*****	61%
Southern Copper (NYSE: PCU)	*****	58%
Weatherford (NYSE: WFT)	*****	74%

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
It seems everyone wants to believe that their company's industry will be a beneficiary of the largesse President-elect Obama has indicated he'll toss around to get the economy moving again. And when estimates for the spending plan run as high as $1 trillion, it's hard not to suspect that your favored business will receive a few of those dollars over the course of the recovery.

Everything from engineering firms like Foster Wheeler (Nasdaq: FWLT) to heavy equipment manufacturers like Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) is seemingly slated to bask in the glow of the cash infusion. Add to that list copper producers, since copper is used for wiring, pipe, and industrial products critical to construction and infrastructure projects. For that reason, investors are getting behind top producer Southern Copper. CAPS member tgibaszek says the flexible metal will be key to any projects undertaken:

Copper is key to any infrastructure plan. They have 85 years of reserve at current production and can sell everything they mine. Solid yield.

The ability to pay down some of its short-term debt through its recent debt financing deal has analysts seeing Weatherford becoming even more nimble. It looks like the oil-services firm was able to raise more than originally anticipated, a development that ought to alleviate investor concerns about a liquidity crunch. Further prospects for international growth -- part of the reason behind Weatherford's decision to move its headquarters to Switzerland -- prompts analysts to think that it will offset contraction occurring in North America.

CAPS member mapboys believes Weatherford has essentially bottomed out, and that it should begin an upward trend again when business starts up:

This consolidator of oil field businesses has probably found its bottom or fairly near and in the future when our business picks up again if you want it Weatherford will have it.

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.

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