3 Stocks Hitting Low Notes

By Motley Fool Staff
August 31, 2009 | Comments (2)

Recs

9

When a stock hits a fresh low, it can either signal a dirt cheap dream stock or a dreadful stock to avoid. Separating the wheat from the chaff is difficult, but finding well-run companies at bargain-basement prices is a great way to accumulate a fortune over the long run.

With that in mind, we'll use the aggregate intelligence of the 135,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS to see what the community is saying about stocks hitting 52-week lows today. The community's approval (signified by four- and five-star ratings) could indicate that further research is in order.

Here are three such stocks:

Company

Today’s Intraday Price

Industry

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

Fools Saying Outperform

Energy Conversion Devices (Nasdaq: ENER)

$11.28

Electrical Equipment

4 Stars

1119 of 1202

United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG)

$10.63

Natural Resources Funds

4 Stars

1249 of 1298

The9 Limited (Nasdaq: NCTY)

$7.56

Software

3 Stars

936 of 974

Source: Motley Fool CAPS, as of Aug. 31.

Top-rated electrical equipment companies:

  • Encore Wire (Nasdaq: WIRE): Stock price is 26% higher than last year.
  • Madeco S.A. (NYSE: MAD): Stock price is 8% higher than last year.

Top-rated natural resources funds companies:

  • United States 12 Month Oil (NYSE: USL): Stock price is % lower than last year.
  • PowerShares Water Resources (NYSE: PHO): Stock price is -27% lower than last year.

Join us on CAPS to learn more about these and countless other interesting stock ideas.

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Disclosure is important to us here at The Motley Fool. The stocks mentioned in this article received their CAPS ratings from participants in The Motley Fool's CAPS service and have hit 52-week lows during today's trading.

No individual person selected the stocks in this article, so there is no author to disclose an interest in them. Since this article was automatically generated by identifying the stocks loved both by the CAPS community and by buyers in today’s market, it is possible that Motley Fool personnel (and even The Motley Fool itself, through our Million Dollar Portfolio, Motley Fool Pro, and Ready Made Millionaire services), have positions in these stocks. We thought you'd like to know that. You can learn more about The Motley Fool’s disclosure policy here.

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

  • Report this Comment On August 31, 2009, at 4:52 PM, Rehydrogenated wrote:

    Avoid NCTY they are losing about 0.35/s in cash a quarter and lost the license to a game counting for, the CEO said it - not me, over 90% of adjusted revenues.

  • Report this Comment On September 01, 2009, at 10:24 AM, ecdfan wrote:

    Wow! The Motley Fool Staff thinks there is a chance that ENER is among the "well-run companies at bargain-basement prices?" The Motley Fool Staff should learn about a measure called free cash flows (defined as cash flows from operations less capital expenditures) - you know, the measure that could be used in the discounted cash flow "analysis." ENER, in its 40+year history, has never generated positive free cash flows on an annual basis. Never. And since the "new" management arrived on the scene in late 2007, the cash drain has intensified, reaching the horrific all-time high of $231 million for the fiscal year that just ended in June. Sure, some would call it "investment in growth." Yet, magically, their sales are evaporating and even nameplate production capacity has dropped in the June quarter from the March quarter.

    And you think this company may have a chance of being "well run?"

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Related Tickers

11/20/2009 4:00 PM
PHO $16.22 Down -0.06 -0.37%
PowerShares Water… CAPS Rating: *****
MAD $6.87 Down +0.00 +0.00%
Madeco S.A. (ADR) CAPS Rating: *****
WIRE $20.45 Up +0.37 +1.84%
Encore Wire Corp CAPS Rating: ***
NCTY $7.49 Down -0.05 -0.66%
The9 Limited (ADR) CAPS Rating: ****
USL $40.52 Down -0.17 -0.42%
United States 12 M… CAPS Rating: ****
ENER $10.57 Up +0.04 +0.38%
Energy Conversion… CAPS Rating: ****
UNG $8.99 Up +0.05 +0.56%
United States Natu… CAPS Rating: ****

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