1-Star Stocks Poised to Plunge: Talbots?

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 140,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, women's apparel retailer Talbots (NYSE: TLB  ) has received the dreaded one-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Talbots' business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Talbots facts

Headquarters (Founded)	Hingham, Mass. (1947)
Market Cap	$499.5 million
Industry	Apparel retail
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$1.3 billion
Management	CEO Trudy Sullivan (since August 2007) CFO Michael Scarpa (since May 2009)
Trailing-12-Month Return on Capital	(15.4%)
Year-to-Date Return	279.5%
Cash / Debt	$113.5 million / $497.1 million
Competitors	Macy's (NYSE: M  ) Gap (NYSE: GPS  ) Coach (NYSE: COH  )
CAPS Members Bearish on TLB Also Bearish on	Palm (Nasdaq: PALM  ) Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE: HOV  )
CAPS Members Bullish on TLB Also Bullish on	Citigroup (NYSE: C  )

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 79% of the 166 All-Star members who have rated Talbots believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bears include MJKpayday and DarthMaul09, both of whom are ranked in the top 5% of our community.

Less than two months ago, MJKpayday warned our community that Talbots "is a women's clothing retailer with decreasing sales, negative profits, negative equity, and I don't know many woman just dying to have the latest." Our CAPS All-Star grimly concludes: "Talbots is a fading fad."

In a pitch from two weeks later, DarthMaul09 expands on the stock as a particularly bad fit:

The company has survived last year's fall and is back to where it was before the crash. To survive, it likely cut costs and reduced their inventory to match demand. This year’s shopping season is still uncertain. Even through there appears to be improved sentiment among the shoppers, the unemployment rate is much higher and available credit is less and more difficult to obtain, so the optimism among retail bulls may lead to their slaughter.

What do you think about Talbots, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. The CAPS community is waiting to hear your opinions. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!