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
Shares of wireless medical technology leader CardioNet have suffered from arrhythmia, as Medicare and insurers resist paying the kinds of rates it needs for its telemetry products.

CardioNet has gone through some heart -stopping drops in the past -- particularly last year, when Highmark Medical Service, a big administrative contractor in the Northeast, announced it would cut its reimbursement rate by a third. Lower reimbursement rates continue to dog CardioNet, and though it got a slightly higher rate approved earlier this month, it's still well below what it was earning a year ago.

CAPS members remain upbeat about its prospects, however, and 90% of the more than 200 members who've rated it suspect it will be able to pump out market-beating returns. You can monitor the pace for CardioNet's recovery by adding it to your watchlist, and let us know on the CardioNet CAPS page whether the stock will go into cardiac arrest again.

A reserve player
One small silver lining offset the dark clouds over commercial real estate last month: Delinquencies eased up a bit as lenders continued to engage in "extend and pretend" policies. Fitch Ratings said that the delinquency rate inched lower, to 12.8% in October, as asset managers reported $98 million in realized losses when selling distressed assets. Over the past nine months, Gramercy Capital had charge-offs related to realized loans of more than $209 million in losses on nine loans, while the charge-offs for all of 2009 came to $188 million on 16 loans.

Mall operators such as Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG) and General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) have posted stock gains of 29% and 38%, respectively, so far this year. But in general, the CRE market suffers from double-digit percentage plunges in rents, lower land values, and higher vacancy rates. Many REITs sadly won't look good for a long time to come.

In this environment, Gramercy has decided to focus on acquiring and managing commercial properties mainly leased to large national banks, but also to midsized and community banks. Investors hope this strategy will help Gramercy shield itself from the worst of what's to come. Roughly 96% of the CAPS members who've rated it believe it will outperform the broad market averages, but only you can decide whether a REIT like this is right for your portfolio. Put Gramercy Capital in Fool.com's free portfolio tracker, and get all our news and analysts on the company aggregated for you.

Getting left back
According to the market researchers at iSuppli, infrastructure spending at wireless network operators will soon open up again after two years of reining in outlays. Capital spending in 2011 is poised to rise by $40 billion, a near 7% increase over 2009's levels, and will keep right on spending through 2014.

Telestone Technologies expects the 4G battle now raging between Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), and AT&T to eventually spill over to China, where the "Big 3" carriers are only just advancing their 3G networks. Telestone expects these carriers to deploy its network services and wireless fiber optic distribution system when they eventually upgrade to 4G capacity.

CAPS member bofors thinks Telestone's wireless technology will gain worldwide acceptance:

In short, given potential international demand for TSTC's highly profitable WFDS technology a significantly higher P/E is warranted. Furthermore, TSTC is very stable at about $10 and should approach $15 within two months at most.

Let us know what you're hearing on the Telestone Technologies CAPS page.

Have half a mind
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