Can These Stocks Bounce Higher?

However hard the market slams a stock, there's always the chance it'll come bouncing right back. We'll consult our Motley Fool CAPS community to find shares on the rebound, as we examine one specific sector of the economy in search of companies with rising CAPS ratings.           

There are 89 stocks listed under "consumer durables" in the CAPS' screener, but more than a handful of them carry well-respected four- and five-star ratings. Those accolades mean our 170,000 CAPS members are confident that these stocks will beat the market in the months ahead, but let's see what members are saying about the ones that follow.

Sources: Motley Fool CAPS, Yahoo! Finance.

The markets seem to be feeling better about the economy, after a few recent reports offset much of the drumbeat of negativism we've seen. But while the S&P 500 up more than 20% since last year, CAPS consumer-durables stocks have done even better. The average stock in this sector has risen by 27% from the year-ago period, so let's take a closer look at why investors think some of these other companies won't be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Some spring in its step
It was always an interesting amalgam of businesses that made up Fortune Brands, so the company's decision to separate its home and security, golf, and liquor businesses makes some sense as a means for returning value to shareholders.

The plan is to spin off the security division to shareholders and try to find a buyer for the golf division. Fortune itself would continue as a liquor company, though there's speculation that Diageo (NYSE: DEO) might want to sip some of Fortune's Maker's Mark bourbon whiskey, along with its other premium labels.

Although Fortune is perhaps best known for its line of liquors such as Jim Beam and Courvoisier, its home and security business -- representing products such as Moen and Therma-Tru -- is actually the largest of the three divisions, with $3.2 billion in sales in 2010. Housing's slump, however, continues to pressure the business, and 85% of the segment's revenue comes from the United States. Segment revenue is down more than 30% from its peak in 2006.

And golf sales are off some 12% since the segment's heyday back in 2007, when it pulled in $1.4 billion. Competition with Callaway (NYSE: ELY) and others has become more intense, and Callaway would make a natural home for Fortune's Titleist brand if Fortune were willing to deal it.

CAPS member liverless thinks the breakup is good for shareholders, but you can tell us on the Fortune Brands CAPS page whether the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

Play with this
Although not as diversified as Fortune Brands, Hasbro has evolved from a simple toymaker into a multimedia empire. Nerf, Littlest Pet Shop, and Monopoly continue to be some of the most popular names in its portfolio, but Hasbro has also supplemented and extended its reach by becoming not only a licensing machine for its stable of brands, but also a movie studio and a TV production company in a way that far outstrips its larger rival Mattel (NYSE: MAT).

Of course, even as those ventures offer multiple new revenue streams, they also bring a certain level of risk. Movies can bomb, and its Hasbro's TV channel, which is a joint venture with Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCK), may never be able to effectively compete against some of the giants in this sector, such as Nickelodeon or Mickey Mouse's empire. So far, though, Hasbro hasn't really made any mistakes. Even what might have been perceived as a weak movie reimagining of the G.I. Joe franchise in 2009 pulled in more than $302 million in worldwide box office receipts, and that doesn't include what the film did for toy sales. I'm sure more studios would love to have "weak" results like that.

Hasbro's ability to generate a 360-degree marketing campaign around any brand sets it apart from the competition and convinces All-Star iamnik77 that it has a lot of room left to grow.

[Hasbro] has so many brands to leverage in so many ways. If this company mismanages these brands the downside doesn't seem huge. But if they make the right moves with just a couple of their brands, the results could be spectacular. In this market such a promising company at such an attractive valuation is hard to ignore. And, it isn't even a mega cap yet. Ten years from now, it might be.

It's all in the mix
In addition to the deals NIVS IntelliMedia Technology signed with China's biggest telecoms, the maker of intelligent audio and visual products as well as mobile phones is also inking deals in that other emerging market powerhouse of India. It just added another half million dollar order on top of the $1.7 million contract for custom mobile phones it announced last week. Agreements like these attracted CAPS member Bellaboiue, who sees them as providing big support under to NIVS’s earnings.

Shares might have fallen over the past year but the future looks like it will ring up some profits. Add NIVS to the Fool's free portfolio tracker to keep up to date on its potential, then head over to the NIVS IntelliMedia Technology CAPS page and let us know if there's a disconnect between its potential and its price.

The ball's in your court
There are many factors that go into whether a stock is a buy or sell, so 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. Head over to CAPS today, and share your thoughts with other investor analysts on whether you think these stocks are ready to bound higher.