Recs

5

5 Superball Stocks

When stocks fall fast and far, they sometimes set themselves up for remarkable rebounds. The following equities suffered dramatic drops over the past week. With help from the 170,000 members of Motley Fool CAPS, we'll see whether any of them have the potential to bounce back:

Companies

 

How far from 52-week high?

Recent Price

CAPS Rating

(out of 5)

OmniVision Technologies (Nasdaq: OVTI  ) (10%) $33.18 ****
CME Group (NYSE: CME  ) (13%) $283.15 ****
Skyworks Solutions (Nasdaq: SWKS  ) (33%) $25.50 ****
Frontline (NYSE: FRO  ) (50%) $17.74 ****
American International Group (NYSE: AIG  ) (45%) $28.88 **

Companies are selected by screening on finviz.com for abrupt 10% or greater price drops over the past week. 52-week high and recent price data provided by finviz.com. CAPS ratings from Motley Fool CAPS.

Five super falls -- one superball
There's no two ways about it: If you owned any of the five stocks named above last week, you're significantly poorer for it today. So what went wrong?

Beginning at the bottom, AIG's share price may have dropped a bit, but I still hesitate to call this "bad news." Fact is, the company succeeded in floating 200 million government shares at its re-IPO. And while the $29-a-share sales-price wasn't nearly as much as AIG shares fetched just a few months ago, it was considerably more than the $25-price  many pundits had been predicting going into the IPO.

Similarly not-so-bad news is afflicting Frontline. Reporting earnings last week, the company admitted to lower operating profits -- but not so low as to miss earnings targets. In fact, the company beat on earnings.

At Skyworks, we learned the company is about to get $259 million poorer, but one acquisition richer, as it purchases Advanced Analogic (Nasdaq: AATI  ) . The acquisition carries a hefty premium, but according to Skyworks, it will improve the company's position in the market for smartphones, tablets, and set-top-boxes.

CME's stock seems to be having an adverse reaction to the Nymex-operator's plan to increase margin requirements for oil futures contracts. On the other hand, CME looks to be expanding its business in Ukraine, signing a memorandum of understanding to lay the groundwork for trading grain and other futures contracts in that country.

What about OmniVision?
Indeed, what about OmniVision? Like the other stocks on today's list, it took a big tumble last week. Also like them, the news doesn't seem to justify the sell-off -- and CAPS investors continue to think the stock's a fine value, giving OmniVision a near-perfect four-star rating. Why?

Turns out, the answer is remarkably simple. CAPS member rjfraiman cheers "Apple, Apple, Apple!!!!" ealva54 praises the company's "unique ties to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL  ) ." And rcjansen elaborates that OmniVision "provides top notch cameras for Apple," arguing that "Ipad and Iphone sales will keep this stock going through most of 2011."

And they're not alone in their enthusiasm. Discussing OmniVision's fourth-quarter earnings report last week, fellow Fool Anders Bylund pointed out that the company's stock has soared on investor hopes that it will ride Apple's coattails to success in the months and years ahead. Anders attributes the post-earnings sell-off to investors getting "a little too fired up about this stock," and being disappointed when OmniVision "failed" to beat earnings estimates by as much as it did last time around.

So what?
That's what I say -- because from where I sit, OmniVision did just fine. It delivered better gross margins that it had expected, grew revenues 64%, and produced pro forma earnings far ahead of last year's number. I'm a bit disappointed that management didn't deign to provide investors with a cash flow statement to "ice the cake." Still, my review of what OmniVision did tell us suggests that when we do get a final report, free cash flow is going to look just fine.

Last time we heard from OmniVision, three quarters into the fiscal year, free cash flow was running comfortably ahead of reported net income. And the company's latest balance sheet shows cash levels to be way up from this time last year. Put those two facts together, and I'd say chances look good for OmniVision having generated in excess of $125 million free cash flow last year.

If I'm right, that would give the company an enterprise value-to-free cash flow ratio of about 12 -- plenty cheap for the 15% long-term growth that most analysts expect it to produce. My guess: When we finally get the hard numbers, OmniVision is due for a bounce. Be prepared.

Want to bet I'm wrong? Click over to Motley Fool CAPS now, and tell us what you think about OmniVision Technologies.

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The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. You can find him on CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handle TMFDitty, where he's currently ranked No. 517 out of more than 170,000 members. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of and creating a bull call spread position in Apple. Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool has a disclosure policy.


Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

  • Report this Comment On May 31, 2011, at 8:19 PM, mmoser105 wrote:

    They all well deserved falls with the exception of CME-the trendsetter of market places.

    Try managing risk, new AIG, you might once again be a 1000 dollar stock with a well managed business that does not need a government bailout.

    Its all about transpancy and an open marketplace-rock on CME.

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Related Tickers

5/25/2012 4:00 PM
OVTI $14.19 Down -0.16 -1.11%
OmniVision Technol… CAPS Rating: ****
FRO $5.38 Up +0.40 +8.03%
Frontline Ltd. (US… CAPS Rating: ***
SWKS $25.68 Up +0.17 +0.67%
Skyworks Solutions… CAPS Rating: ****
AIG $28.99 Down -0.42 -1.43%
American Internati… CAPS Rating: **
AAPL $562.29 Down -3.03 -0.54%
Apple CAPS Rating: ***
AATI $0.00 Down +0.00 +0.00%
Advanced Analogic… CAPS Rating: *****

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