Tomorrow's Monster Stock?

Stocks climbing to 10 times their original price are rare breeds -- but they're not impossible to find. Especially when you have Fools for friends.

The market's best stocks include companies that have risen dozens of times in value by taking advantage of the market's weaknesses. These aren't penny stocks; they're viable companies with sound business prospects that are achieving phenomenal returns. Finding just one or two of these monstrously successful firms can help you establish a winning portfolio.

Stalking the monster
To find tomorrow's winners, we've enlisted the help of more than 170,000 monster trackers at Motley Fool CAPS. We've compiled a list of the most successful CAPS members, dubbed All-Stars, whose picks have doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled in price. Then we've plucked out some of their recent picks for stocks they find equally promising.

Score is how many percentage points that pick is beating the S&P 500.

Of course, this is not a list of stocks to buy -- or, for those monster stocks that our CAPS All-Stars have already found, sell. Just consider them starting points for your own further research of extreme buying opportunities.

In search of bigfoot
Well that wasn't supposed to happen. December and the holiday season were supposed to put retailers back on the map as consumers had supposedly bought into the recovery and were willing to open their wallets again. Turns out, maybe it was just too much hopeful thinking.

Same-store sales numbers for the month are out and other than a few solitary bright spots -- J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP), for example -- comps generally came in below expectations. Maybe it was the blizzard that buried the Northeast right after Christmas, wiping out the other half of an important shopping weekend (the holiday itself fell on a Saturday, meaning stores were closed), but retailers from Target to Costco all saw their numbers come in weak.

Costco's 6% comps by themselves actually looked OK, but they were slightly below the 6.2% analysts had anticipated. I suspect it just might have been analysts that were too giddy about what the consumer would do, and agree with CAPS member Koomander that shoppers are still going to want to save money by buying in bulk.

Costco will continue to prosper especially when consumers are eager to save by buying bulk (although some purchases are pure excessive. Hey, that's what Costco wants right?).

Add Costco to your watchlist and have all the Foolish news and analysis aggregated for you in a single place.

A gold standard
Where eMagin (Nasdaq: EMAN) is focusing broadly on Defense Department contracts and Universal Display (Nasdaq: PANL) is primarily looking toward the consumer market, pico projector manufacturer Microvision is taking a scattershot approach, working with the military, consumer electronics firms, and the gaming industry to best grow sales. They all are carving out niche areas in an industry that looks ripe for rapid growth and arguments are easily made that a basket of these stocks would make a smart investment.

Microvision recently signed a deal with Pioneer to incorporate its PicoP laser technology into its transparent head-up displays found in cars and consumer products. Its SHOWWX projectors take gaming from the small screen that players are typically tethered to, and projects it onto any surface.

CAPS member Glasscase believes the market is finally ready for Microvision's technology.

It's been a long time coming with ups and downs. IMO the market is finally ready for MVIS. If you go long term mvis is ready for picking now. By the end of 2011 your fruit will be ripe!

If you're game, weigh in yourself on the Microvision CAPS page and add the stock to the Fool's free portfolio tracker to follow along.

Inflating values
Rare earth minerals are getting all the press these days, sending shares of Molycorp (NYSE: MCP) more than 80% higher over the past month alone. In the hubbub over China's metals rationing and the stampede of lemming-like investors into any stock remotely related to mining in the Far East, forgotten are the more mundane but equally important miners like Titanium Metals. Its stock is down 6% over the past 30 days and is almost 20% lower over the past quarter.

But insiders are acutely aware of the value inherent in the company and have been regularly acquiring shares, an event not lost on CAPS member NuclearSteve.

BIG TIME Insider buying...

Corporate insiders at Titanium Metals (TIE) purchased 2 million shares, or $34.1 million worth of stock, at an average share price of $17.07. This comes on the heels of a $2.5 million purchase two weeks ago by the chairman of the board, Harold Simmons. So who was the big buyer for this reporting period? You guessed it. Once again, Simmons stepped up and took down just over $34 million worth of stock. There's one thing that I can say about this move by Simmons: It's extremely bullish.

A chance for scary growth
It takes more than a few All-Star picks and a quick pitch to make buy or sell decisions, so start your own research on these stocks on Motley Fool CAPS and find other opportunities with monster potential.