5 Top Stocks at Half-Price

You love buying your favorite shirts when they go on sale. And who can resist a buy-one-get-one-free offer? So when our stocks go on sale, why do we cry about their low prices?

Smart investors like Warren Buffett and Marty Whitman love it when their stocks are suddenly selling at bargain-basement prices. For them, these companies become no-brainer buys.

The investors who populate the Motley Fool CAPS community also like a bargain. Below, you'll find five stocks whose shares are selling at least 50% below their 52-week highs, but which still earn top honors from our investor-intelligence database. Consider it a BOGO sale on stocks.

Naturally, we want you to look a bit closer at these stocks before buying. After all, you can get low-priced appliances in the dent-and-ding aisle, but their quality might not be so good. Same thing here: Make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with the company before you plug it into your portfolio.

Take two, they're small
One of the reasons that Fools caution against simply looking at a stock's share price to determine the worth of the business is illustrated by Chesapeake Energy, whose stock got beat up partly as a result of its CEO having to sell his stake in a margin call. (This also illustrates one of the reasons Fools caution against using margin.) Margin calls also struck Sumner Redstone at Viacom (NYSE:VIA-B) and Howard Lester at Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM). Nearly 20 executives have reported getting that dreaded call from their broker.

In other times, a low stock price on a quality company might signal an opportunity for a corporate raider to move in, but CAPS member billburns44 says the credit crunch ought to spare Chesapeake from this fate:

The lack of cash among possible predatory companies in light of the pending credit crisis will keep [Chesapeake] safe from being dismantled, despite its low quote being at a tempting price.... Energy independence is the most important economic and national security policy facing the U.S. and the world. Natural gas is going to be the back bone that will supplement any possible plan for energy independence.

Top-rated CAPS All-Star muirmm offered a double take on Yingli Green Energy, seeing a bump thanks to solar tax credits then a dump thanks to competition:  

All the solar manufacturers have sold off because of uncertainty over whether renewable energy tax credits will be extended. I'm very sure they will be, and so have picked a number of these companies to outperform for a few months. I think the credits will be renewed, which will cause these stocks to go up in price.... After that, I believe solar stocks will be a bad bet. Nanosolar (not a public company) will soon flood the market with much cheaper solar cells. Based on their press release in June, they have the potential to build a staggering number of solar cells with their breakthrough panel-printing method.... Once they get rolling, they will be able to make an essentially infinite supply of panels at a tenth the current price. That will make life REALLY hard for all the other manufacturers.

With solar projects heavily leveraged and many financial companies perhaps unable to benefit from the credits, since they're reporting losses, it may end up being the more mundane credit crunch rather than exciting nanotechnology that holds solar stocks back.

Have half a mind
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.  

Sign up today for the completely free service, and tell us whether these stocks are twice as good at half the price.