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 in the Motley Fool CAPS community also like a bargain, apparently. Below, you'll find five companies whose shares are selling at least 50% below their 52-week highs, but which still earn high honors from our investor-intelligence database. Consider it a BOGO sale on stocks.

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
In a year when other advertising shops in China have turned in stellar performances -- Focus Media (Nasdaq: FMCN), despite a called-off merger with Sina, is up more than 165%, and digital media leader China MediaExpress (Nasdaq: CCME) is up more than 50% and looks poised to bounce back more -- VisionChina Media remains an industry laggard, down more than 8%, and losing more than a third of its value in a single day after reporting disappointing guidance earlier this month.

For some investors, you may as well put up a billboard advertising a bargain stock when you get results like that. CAPS All-Star member mrindependent says VisionChina has been beaten up too much to ignore:

I agree that this stock has been beaten too hard for its lower than expected revenue forecast. The current valuation for the company is not exceptionally low, but it is acceptable.

E-read all about it
Sometimes a company is beaten down for a good reason. Last September InnoData Isogen announced a big $4 million contract to convert thousands of hard copy titles to an electronic format, but after sinking $450,000 into the project, the client backed out and cancelled it. Coupled with needing to establish a $1.2 million potential loss reserve related to another customer, and InnoData saw a $0.19 per share profit last year turn into a $0.03 loss this time around.  

Like those investors with VisionChina Media, All-Star BuffetsMentor thinks InnoData's selloff is overdone, and 94% of those CAPS members who've rated the electronic media specialist believe it will ultimately outperform the market. Considering InnoData provides the technology permitting the conversion of conventional books into e-books, more players like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) preparing to offer such opportunities, might bear out that confidence.

Playing defense
Although defense contractor DynCorp International has been criticized several times for the money it gets for training Iraqi police, it continues to receive contracts from the government and that has investors believing it will ultimately regain its footing. CAPS member nibs61 says there's little chance funding will be pulled:

A defense stock that has manay goverment contracts and we know if the goverment is short on cash they will just print more. So no real worries about losing those contracts. 3 billion worth a year as I type. The LOGCAP IV contract could be a windfall for this company. I own this in my personal account.

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.