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 monster-trackers at Motley Fool CAPS who have successfully picked stocks that have doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled in price. This week, All-Star member Momentum21 gives us biotech Amarin
Of course, you shouldn't jump into the breach just because an All-Star stock picker did. Just consider this a starting point for your own research of extreme buying opportunities.
Amarin snapshot
| Market Cap | $2.0 billion |
| Revenues (TTM) | $0 million |
| 1-Year Stock Return | 6.2% |
| Return on Equity | NA |
| Dividend & Yield | NA/NA |
| Recent Price | $14.86 |
| CAPS Rating (out of 5) | **** |
Source: Motley Fool CAPS and Finviz.com.
Focusing on the future
The clock is ticking down for an FDA decision on Amarin's fish-oil therapy AMR-101, scheduled to be issued sometime this month. Shares of the biotech have been running much hotter than the 6% year-over-year gains suggest. They've doubled in value in 2012 alone, and with good reason.
It recently was awarded U.S. patent office protection for its formulation, which ought to insulate it from attack when it hits the market, and a smaller rival's late-stage study results couldn't match AMR-101. Not that they were bad, per se, just that they were only on par in effectiveness with GlaxoSmithKline's Lovaza, which is the only prescription-grade omega3 medication currently approved by the FDA. Even though AMR-101 isn't on the market yet, it's already seen as a major upgrade from Lovaza, which is why investors have been bidding up the stock. They're anticipating the FDA will agree.
Treating high triglyceride levels, as AMR-101 seeks to do, is a lucrative market. GSK's Lovaza generated nearly $1 billion in sales in the U.S. last year while Abbott Labs'
The perfect mixer
The success of Lipitor, in fact, and the resulting generic competition that's now available, is one of the reasons Amarin is seen as a potential takeover candidate. Pfizer could use a successful therapy in the market, and one that now enjoys patent protection, but so could Merck
Right now Amarin doesn't have a product on the market, but the potential for monster growth following FDA approval is almost palpable. CAPS member ennui thinks Amarin could have a blockbuster on its hands: "Just keep this in mind: this is a potential blockbuster drug, which has shown greater efficacy than the current champ. If approved, this formula has multi-billion dollar potential."
I agree there is still plenty of runway for the company and the stock, so I'll be maintaining my own outperform rating on CAPS, but let me know in the comments section below or on the Amarin CAPS page what your opinion of its future is.
A chance for scary growth
The health-care debate didn't end with the Supreme Court's ruling on Obamacare, and this November's elections will be the ultimate arbiter of the law. The Motley Fool has identified a number of industries including the health-care field that will profit no matter which way the race goes. Download your copy of the free report "These Stocks Could Skyrocket After the 2012 Presidential Election" to see which stocks will be the winner. But hurry because it's available only for a limited time.
