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 companies 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 by 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.

Get a backbone
Is Medtronic spineless and unethical? The medical-device maker that specializes in products used in repairing backbone injuries has been accused of being the beneficiary of biased and slanted research papers that hid the dangers of its popular Infuse bone-growth protein often used in spinal-fusion surgeries. At worst, Medtronic paid the researchers to ignore the dangers it represented. Infuse kicks in an estimated $900 million in revenues annually.

Fourth-quarter profits at Medtronic dropped 19% as it undergoes a restructuring, though its spinal division generated some $3.4 billion in revenues in 2010. Yet if the questions raised by The Spine Journal prove true, it could seriously affect future Infuse sales. Much of the protein's use is off-label, and doctors might be unwilling to use it if they think the previously undisclosed dangers outweigh the benefits. It's estimated that sales have dropped by nearly 20% already, and the segment faces increased competition from Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) and St. Jude Medical, which specialize in neuromodulation for the treatment of back pain.

This late-developing situation may not have been factored in yet on CAPS, where 95% of the more than 1,700 members who've rated it say that it will outperform the broad market averages. But with Medtronic being the country's largest medical-device maker, our CAPS members also might see this as just a short detour than an issue with lasting impact.

Let us know in the comments section below or on the Medtronic CAPS page whether you think its payments to researchers were a quid pro quo for favorable reporting.

In search of Bigfoot
Amid solar subsidy cuts, there's not much hope for growth in the sector, but there are some bright spots still. First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) got an assist from the Energy Department, which agreed to finance three projects with loan guarantees. And Germany will not be cutting tariffs in the second half of 2011 because demand for installations has fallen off significantly. That's good news for ReneSola, since Germany is its biggest customer in Europe (though that's dwarfed by sales in China).

German PV installations were down 37% in May from the year-ago period, following a 56% decline in April. However, May's installations were 79% higher than April's, which, in turn, were 37% higher than in March. With all the subsidy cuts that have been initiated, it's not surprising that demand is down year over year, but it's a positive development that demand is growing, and analyst Aaron Chew at Maxim Group says June's demand was even better.

CAPS member spacemark thinks that even the concern over pricing may be overblown for ReneSola: "At this point with $5 range, this amazing stock [is] clearly at bottom. Even if prices of wafer modules go less, margins go less, SOL will be there as long as other big players are in market, and SOL will keep providing them with great quality parts they need."

Follow along by adding ReneSola to your watchlist and see whether conditions become ripe for a rebound.

Totally awesome
And any further doubts about the potential for the solar sector should have been erased by Total's decision to take a 60% stake in SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA) with a $1.3 billion investment. It might not be the start of a feeding frenzy in the sector -- after all, the CAPS Solar Power sector is up more than 42% over the past year, meaning the bargains are fewer than before -- but other oil giants might look to make targeted investments or acquisitions, too.

ReneSola, for example, is down 20% year over year and off 65% from its 52-week high, while Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) is down 15% and 30%, respectively.

Even without the solar bid, investors have been bullish on Total, with 98% of the CAPS members who've rated it seeing outperformance of the market indexes in its future. Tell us on the Total CAPS page whether you agree that this is a totally awesome investment.

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 marvel at the range of opinions you'll find there.