10 Stocks Shaking the Market

• Email
• Share
• Print

Some stocks are one-hit wonders, making a big splash when they first appear, then quickly fizzling into obscurity or oblivion. But for other stocks, that initial big move is only a preview for even bigger and better gains to come.

Today, we've compiled 10 stocks that made some of the biggest upward moves over the past month. We'll then pair that list with the ratings issued by our Motley Fool CAPS community. The higher each stock's rating, the greater CAPS members' faith in that company's ability to keep on beating the market.

Stock	30-Day % Change	CAPS Rating
Targacept	327.4%	*
Radian Group (NYSE: RDN)	250.0%	**
Acadia Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ACAD)	196.6%	**
Brigham Exploration (Nasdaq: BEXP)	160.0%	***
Sulphco	126.5%	*
ValueVision Media (Nasdaq: VVTV)	125.0%	**
Crocs (Nasdaq: CROX)	112.5%	*
Standard Pacific	89.3%	*
Hovnanian (NYSE: HOV)	88.2%	*
American International Group (NYSE: AIG)	74.7%	**

As the markets have regained their winning ways, we can see that the magnitude of gains here hasn't kept up the pace of prior weeks' movers and shakers. Pharmaceuticals and biotechs seem to rule the roost these days, with half the companies representing those sectors. Let's see why the CAPS community thinks some of these stocks might outperform the market.

A mighty temblor
Trying to get a handle on Crocs' latest quarter is as slippery as watching old videos of Steve Irwin wrestling the shoemaker's reptilian namesake. The faddish footwear purveyor reported a second quarter that topped its own guidance, but sales were still falling, and to get rid of its impaired inventory, it resorted to giving away shoes to charity. Management can crow about igniting a "feel-good revolution," but having to donate inventory to move product isn't exactly marching orders for prosperity. It definitely doesn't equate to consumer demand.

Investors were heartened by management's assertion that it will stomp the red out of its financial statements by next year. Yet even if the potential for bankruptcy has been laced up for the time being, it hardly seems possible that Crocs will again enjoy the same growth that marked the height of its fad, especially now that cheap knockoffs are as numerous as the colors the clogs come in.

Those imitations have CAPS member sempire wondering why consumers would buy the original when they can get essentially the same thing for less:

Why buy Crocs from Crocs, when you can buy Chinese knock off Crocs for 1/4 the price. Everywhere I go you can find knock off Crocs for sale. They're not special or unique enough to warrant spending the money on. It's not like they are Prada Crocs. The knock offs are made of the same material, and same design.

Still feeling the aftershocks
It's deja vu all over again. American International Group's new CEO apparently figured that just getting the top spot was grueling enough to merit a vacation. Just a day after being appointed to the government-owned insurer, Robert Benmosche is taking a two-week vacation to his million-dollar Croatian villa, according to reports. So are taxpayers getting their money's worth?

In the grand scheme of things, Benmosche's jaunt doesn't amount to much, but for a company living off our tax dollars, it sure doesn't look good. Just like those pampered retreats for AIG execs last year, it showed an incredible lack of judgment. By all accounts, the new CEO should be a net plus for AIG, and his vacation won't detract from what the business is going through. But it does suggest that a level of tone-deafness still permeates the organization.

Investors remain unimpressed. Even AIG's recent profit report has CAPS member ocwaverider saying that there's less than meets the eye there:

Let's see. Owe the government $84 BILLION. State a profit based on stabilizing assets (not an increase in value - we all know that is not happening soon). Seems like a no-brainer to come back down to earth after the shorts cover.

Shake, rattle, and roll
With these stocks shaking the market this past month, it pays to start your own research on them at 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.