5 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 for even bigger and better gains to come.

Today, we've listed five stocks that made some of the biggest upward moves over the past month, which we'll pair with the ratings issued by our Motley Fool CAPS community. The higher each stock's rating, the greater CAPS members' faith in that company's ability to keep on beating the market.

30-Day % change from Feb. 24 to March 29.

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 some of these companies might continue to outperform the market.

A mighty temblor
Although microprojector maker Microvision has been slowly building up its client list in recent months, its fourth-quarter results failed to show a profit. Investors who have been unhappy with dilution from share offerings were equally unimpressed with the narrowing losses and its stock fell the day after the report.

CAPS member MartinRun thought "serious revenues" were still in Microvision's distant future and indicated the company would underperform the market. While the stock has slowly inched its way back up since then, the future arrived all of a sudden yesterday when the tiny projector maker reported an $8.5 million order from a consumer electronics company that wanted its projectors for a "high-end mobile media player" that would be released later this year.

That's big news for the tiny electronics company as that one order more than doubles the revenue it generated for all of 2009. Although facing competition from much larger tech companies like Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and 3M (NYSE: MMM), the company could effectively use this order as a "proof of concept" project that ends up luring other consumer electronics companies its way.

That could be why 90% of the CAPS members rating the high-tech gear maker believe it will outperform the broad market averages. You can project your own views on the Microvision CAPS page on whether there's big things in its future.

Still feeling the aftershocks
Mortgage insurance is back in a big way too, after an industry group said borrowers caught up on loans faster than those who fell behind -- the first time that's happened in four years. After the Obama administration expanded its mortgage modification program, the movement is in the right direction although hardly an indication of a full-fledged recovery.

Yet does it mean mortgage insurers PMI Group, Genworth Financial (NYSE: GNW), and Radian Group (NYSE: RDN) should be thundering ahead? The housing situation is still untenable. The government has been propping up still-inflated housing prices by keeping rates low. It has purchased mortgage-backed securities and encouraged purchases of homes through tax credits. Now, to stem the rising tide of foreclosures, the Obama administration is urging lenders to complete short sales, by paying them $1,500 for each one they approve. Second mortgage holders get $6,000 and the homeowners get $3,000.

Highly rated CAPS All-Star tenmiles says that despite all the rosy prognostications, don't bet on the insurers, particularly with the likelihood that PMI will use its new-found higher stock prices for dilutive stock offerings.

There are some incremental positives – (1) for the first time in four years newly delinquent homeowners were outnumbered by those catching up on late mortgages; (2) they can now issue mortgage guarantee insurance for Freddie, since they are letting them game the system as their main arm doesn't meet regulatory capital requirements. Still, I really wouldn't advise betting the mortgage on this one after recent run; expect they will use recent stock strength to dilute – seller at $5.73 -expect renewed economic and market headwinds beginning in Q3/Q4 and this one will be in the crosshairs.

JackCaps is similarly unimpressed with mortgage insurer MGIC Investment, pointing to the large overhang of housing inventory that will continue to pressure the company: "Its future is tied to the housing market, which is projected to incur continued downward price pressure due to supply exceeding demand for the next few years."

You can let us know on the MGIC Investment CAPS page whether these insurers have mortgaged their future.

Shake, rattle, and roll
With these stocks shaking the market this past month it pays to start your own research on them at 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.