3 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 three 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
Though sales are soaring at its software-as-a-service business, CDC Software is feeling the pressure on profits with continued expansion. Earnings guidance for 2010 and 2011 came in lower than what Wall Street was anticipating even though recent revenues exceeded expectations.

The company is looking for its SaaS business to give it access to Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) and Stryker (NYSE: SYK) as investments in the auto industry grow. But inflation in China is outpacing the mandated 3% target rate, meaning the country may hit the brakes harder on economic expansion to keep it in check. Lending is already being scaled back, down 17% in May compared with April (though still ahead of forecasts), and industrial production is easing, raising fears of further reduced forecasts for economic growth.

Investors still support the enterprise software developer, with 95% of the CAPS members rating it picking it to outperform the broad market averages. Give us your opinion on whether you think there will be further reductions in Chinese growth on the CDC Software CAPS page.

A little private time
Unlike retailers who reap higher profits when they sell private-label goods, the suppliers make less. Dean Foods is feeling the pinch from retailers demanding even greater concessions from private-label producers. It's easy to understand why the milk maker reported a 43% drop in first-quarter earnings, what with Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) -- its largest customer, representing about 19% of 2009 revenues -- reporting reduced store traffic for the second quarter in a row.

Dean Foods' stock dropped sharply after the company withdrew its full-year guidance, but CAPS member kahunacfa says the price action was overdone.

Dean Foods was down Friday an [astounding] thirty percent. The [negative] stock price action was way, way over-done. Dean Foods is a long-term defensive buys over the long-term.

Dean Foods(DF) = BUY, BUY, BUY.

With friends like these
Thanks for nothing, BP (NYSE: BP). Transocean is suffering just as much as the oil company following the collapse of its rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and as management acknowledged recently, the company is open to broad liability under state and national environmental laws. There's still oil gushing out, and cleanup will take years. While BP has assumed some liability for those efforts, it's very likely Transocean will get a bill, too, as lawyers seek deep pockets to reach into.

Some CAPS members, though, think the sell-off in Transocean's shares is just an example of a stock dropping in sympathy. CAPS member jjc1970 says Transocean will ultimately bounce back stronger.

I am extending this pick from 1 year to 2-3 years. It has been beat down because of the oil spill in the Gulf, but the management at RIG has done a far better job handling the situation than that of BP. It may take awhile for this to be in the green, but gas prices will rise again and the gulf oil spill [will] someday be a memory. By 2011-2012 I think I'll make most of my losses back on this one.

Have half a mind
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