10 Stocks Shaking the Market

Some stocks are one-hit wonders, making a big splash when they first appear, then quickly fizzling into obscurity or oblivion. But for other stocks, that initial big move is only a preview of bigger and better gains to come.

Today, we've compiled 10 stocks that made some of the biggest upward moves over the past month. We then paired the stocks with the ratings issued by our Motley Fool CAPS community. The more stars a stock has (out of five), the greater CAPS members' faith in that company's ability to keep on beating the market.

Thirty-day change from Aug. 10 to Sept. 9.

As the markets whipsaw to changes in consumer sentiment, there will be weeks like this one, where we see gains that are exceptionally ahead of the pace of the movers and shakers of prior weeks. So before we get shaken out again, let's see why the CAPS community thinks one of these companies might continue to outperform the market.

A mighty temblor
We haven't heard as much about swine flu outbreaks recently, but we're heading into cold and flu season and health officials worldwide are anticipating new and far more extensive cases to be reported. As if on the verge of hysteria, China says its cases of H1N1 virus may rise from the 3,500 cases that have been reported over the last two weeks or so to the tens of millions.

But that seems almost tame compared to reports that the U.S. has some 159 million high-risk people who will not be vaccinated in time to protect them from the outbreak.

There is a race on amongst pharmaceuticals and biotechs to develop vaccines to help prevent the virus from spreading, but CEL-SCI really shook things up because it appears to have a treatment for those already seriously ill. Although we might hope against a worsening pandemic, if the most alarmist predictions are true -- that there simply won't be enough vaccines available to protect people -- then CEL-SCI may be positioned to capitalize on the need for its therapy to treat the hordes once they've contracted the disease.

CAPS member MichaelinWA thinks the biotech has reached an inflection point, though he's well aware that momentum can change at a moment's notice if things don't go as planned:

Cel-Sci is at potential major turning point. The Government is interested in their LEAPS technology for an H1N1 treatment/prevention that offers potential effectiveness even in the event of a mutating virus. Because of the promise that LEAPS offers, the FDA is working with Cel-Sci to expedite clinical trials of LEAPS-H1N1. Of course, clinicals can fail, but when they are successful, they can change the prospects for small cap biotechnology companies in a major way. If LEAPS-H1N1 offers promise, there could be an immediate worldwide market for it.

Or not. Despite the hoopla carrying this company from literally pennies a share to around $2, the biotech is only entering phase 1 clinical trials of its novel LEAPS technology. While it may have potential down the road for combating viruses, that is still a long, long way off. Anyone investing in CEL-SCI today because of its potential for treating swine flu will surely be disappointed when they realize that the company is running far behind the pack.

CEL-SCI is late to the game, as until only recently it was developing a treatment for head and neck cancer. Its Multikine therapy may enter phase 3 trials, but only if it can get the funding -- it got FDA approval back in January 2007 to perform those trials -- and only recently started churning out press releases attaching itself to the swine flu virus. Further, a recent SEC filing shows its new Multikine manufacturing facility will be more useful as a contract facility for others long before it produces anything for itself.

In short, the company has little in the way of concrete developments to offer investors, but its officers and directors hold millions of stock options at just pennies on the dollar -- the CEO was issued 4 million options just this past July, when the new developments started rolling out -- and they'll be allowed to exercise one-third of them upon enrolling 400 patients in the Multikine phase 3 trials.

While CEL-SCI caused a few tremors with all the swine flu talk, I'd be surprised if it doesn't eventually succumb to the hype malaise.

Shake, rattle, and roll
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.