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 bemoan 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 that still earn top five-star honors from our investor-intelligence database. Consider it a BOGO sale on stocks.

Naturally, we want you to look a bit more closely at these stocks before you buy. 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 a company before you plug it in to your portfolio.

Take two -- they're small
As the price of copper continues to firm up, Taseko Mines is going to benefit from the enhanced production at its Gibraltar mine, which produced 19 million pounds of copper in the second quarter -- 46% more than in the same period last year. And the Gibraltar mine isn't even considered Taseko's prime property -- that would be the Prosperity mine, where Taseko has some 4.7 million ounces of gold to unlock. That's a lot, and it's made some smart Fools think that Taseko might make an interesting acquisition target for a gold miner like Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY).

CAPS member captainBEN thinks the gold and copper reserves will surge in value as macroeconomic forces play out -- and that's not to mention the molybdenum it's been taking out of Gibraltar as well.

The us economy may take a while to start humming but china will still have growth and will still have a strong demand for raw materials. TGB has the copper play for growth and gold for the inflation that is certainly down the road. How is it that during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression can oil be any where close to 70 a barrel, because it is priced in U.S dollars that will become worthless if we continue with these massive deficits. [Taseko] is a cheap hedge that is worth looking at in real life. Trust the Captain!!

Rising commodity prices will drag oil up with it, as hopes for an economic recovery spur dreams of rising demand once again. The higher oil input ought to boost the prospects of all of the Canadian energy trusts, including Harvest Energy and Penn West Energy (NYSE:PWE). They're among the 300-plus stocks making up the CAPS Oil, Gas, & Consumable Fuels sector, which has rallied by 14% over the past month, as oil has climbed for three weeks straight.

CAPS member geeky81 thinks Harvest Energy is operationally sound, and having lowered its debt profile, it becomes an even more attractive play.

The markets are generally bullish on oil stocks. As of writing (7/1/2009), the oil price is around $70. This is a few tens above the low of $30 at the height of the crisis. As the industries and markets recover worldwide, oil demand should increase and along with it, oil price pressure. This should benefit the various oil stocks around as their revenues increase. [Harvest Energy] is involved in both up and down stream operations and this should give them even better exposure. [Harvest Energy] has recently taken measures to reduce [its] debts and in my opinion, this should put them in a better position for future challenges.

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.