Tomorrow's Monster Stocks

Stocks that climb to 10 times their original price are a rare breed -- but they're not impossible to find. Especially when you have Fools for friends.

The market's best stocks include companies that have risen hundreds of times in value over the past decade. These aren't penny stocks; they're viable companies with sound business prospects, achieving phenomenal returns every year. Finding just one or two of these monstrously successful companies can help you establish a winning portfolio.

Stalking the monster
To find tomorrow's monster stocks, we'll enlist the more than 105,000 investors at Motley Fool CAPS. We've compiled a list of the most successful CAPS players, dubbed All-Stars, whose picks have doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled in price. Then we've selected some of their recent picks for stocks they find equally promising.

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.

Bank on this
They're not flashy and you won't find them delving into financial exotica, but conservatively run banks are where you want to put your money -- as a depositor and as an investor -- when times turn sour. By doing so, your money (whether savings or investments) has a much greater likelihood of escaping unscathed. That's why individuals are looking more intently at institutions like US Bancorp, whose latest quarterly results showed why Warren Buffett happens to be a fan.

First-quarter revenue rose 14% to $3.87 billion, while profits fell 3.5% to $1.09 billion, or $0.62 per share. Net income fell at the Motley Fool Income Investor recommendation because it structured its debt and increased its credit loss provision, both of which offset the revenue gains and the profit it had earned on the shares of Visa (NYSE:V) it sold at Visa's IPO. Although US Bancorp hasn't been immune to the credit crisis, compared with its billion-dollar-writedown peers, I wouldn't be surprised if the crisis is hardly even part of its lexicon these days.

There are perhaps worse things you could do than follow investing greats like Buffett into a stock. Some of CAPS top-rated All-Stars, like gea1968, are doing just that. Realizing that banks are being lumped together, it's a play on a conservative investor investing in a conservative bank.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Run away! Aaaaaaaa......
A lot of people (including me) thought that all the financials were irredeemably toxic just a few months ago. Sure, banking stocks were cheap... but they were "cheap for a reason", and getting cheaper all the time.

I think that global financial markets will continue to suffer until at least some time in 2010 ... So, why buy USB? Well, a guy you may have heard of named Warren Buffett just bought more USB. No one is perfect, but I tend to think that Mr. Buffett knows what he is doing. So, I am going to follow suit.

Yet it's because all banks are being lumped together, that other CAPS investors like DozersMom feel that the market's myopic vision makes this a short-term underperform right now.

Although USB offers a nice dividend yield and the return on equity and P/E numbers look decent, I think just the fact that this is a 'financial' hurts this stock. The 300 billion relief package passed [in May] ought to help many in the financial sector, but investors are going to shy away for a while. USB has maintained a pretty positive image throughout the credit crisis and I hope they don't reveal any surprises. I'm not loving the [debt] to equity ratios, but the net profit margin of nearly 30% looks good. Again, I'm only calling this a short term underperformer due to the fact that this is a financial. In the long term, I believe this stock will ultimately outperform.

A chance for scary growth
Fill us in on these stocks that the All-Stars see as achieving monster growth. Agree with their views? Tell us on CAPS. If you don't agree, let us know that, too.