Surprising Five-Star Stocks

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Not all surprises are good ones, unfortunately. Last week, we looked at some highly regarded stocks that delivered lousy returns over a 30-day period. Today, we'll consider another batch of these outstanding underachievers.

This may be just the opportunity that some investors crave: solid companies that are down anywhere from 7% to 24% over the last month, a period where the overall market was rising. One of these stocks may well represent an interesting value opportunity and might be worth taking a closer look.

The table below was created with data from our new Motley Fool CAPS stock-picking service. Our community gave each of these stocks its highest five-star rating a mere 30 days ago, only to see them deliver woeful short-term returns:

Stock	30-day return	One-year return
Bodisen Biotech (AMEX: BBC)	(23.96%)	26.47%
Precision Drilling Trust (NYSE: PDS)	(18.49%)	9.96%
Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX)	(16.02%)	18.28%
Guangshen Railway (NYSE: GSH)	(9.29%)	38.02%
Lamson & Sessions (NYSE: LMS)	(8.88%)	16.00%
VCA Antech (Nasdaq: WOOF)	(8.46%)	37.37%
FreightCar America (Nasdaq: RAIL)	(7.32%)	33.44%

Data provided from Motley Fool CAPS as of Oct. 13.

A couple of these companies, like Bodisen Biotech and VCA Antech, have since been demoted; they're now two-star stocks. Two others, however, Precision Drilling Trust and Lamson & Sessions, have been able to hold on to their five-star ratings. These might be attractive candidates for further due diligence.

Lamson & Sessions, which makes manufactured sewer products, among other things, looks particularly intriguing. Our CAPS community has given it 57 outperforms, with just one underperform. This could be one of those boring, underfollowed companies that ultimately delivers excellent returns for investors. Indeed, a look at this chart reveals that it has performed quite well for investors over the past five years. Want to learn more? Get in the game today. We've already signed up almost 10,000 players, and our aim is to create the world's best stock-picking service. If you're looking for great stock ideas, this is the place to be.

To find more top-notch stocks trading at bargain-basement prices, try Motley Fool Inside Value free for 30 days.

Fool editor John Reeves does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article. He did, however, rate Lamson & Sessions an outperform on CAPS just a few minutes ago. The Fool is investors helping investors.