Tomorrow's Monster Stock?

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

The market's best stocks include companies that have risen dozens of times in value by taking advantage of the market's weaknesses. These aren't penny stocks; they're viable companies with sound business prospects that are achieving phenomenal returns. Finding just one or two of these monstrously successful firms can help you establish a winning portfolio.

Stalking the monster
To find tomorrow's winners, we've enlisted the help of more than 140,000 monster trackers at Motley Fool CAPS. We've compiled a list of the most successful CAPS members, dubbed All-Stars, whose picks have doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled in price. Then we've plucked out some of their recent picks for stocks they find equally promising.

Source: CAPS, as of 10/21/09.

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 of extreme buying opportunities.

In search of Bigfoot
The earnings report from oil services giant Halliburton presages a recovery in the oil industry that could point to headier times for it and rival Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB). While profits still fell more than 60% compared to the year-ago quarter, revenue rose sequentially for the first time this year, though it was down significantly against last year.

CEO Dave Lesar says the slump the company anticipated won't be quite so bad after all. Rising rig counts in North America and steadily climbing oil prices helped fuel the company's uptick in revenue. Oil hit $80 a barrel yesterday, nearly twice the level it traded at the beginning of the year.

In early June, CAPS member WPThatcher figured that even if this wasn't the go-go days of last year's oil market, Halliburton looked cheap on any number of metrics. Again, note that these numbers are from June:

Even if you don't think that the oil bull market is still in effect, you have to admit that this oil services stock is cheap. P/S = 1.13, P/CF = 6.35, Add to this a 5-yr earnings growth rate that is nearly twice the industry average and this one is an easy decision. I know that it's come a long way from the $12 52-week low, but there's more $ on the way.

I can't hear you
Ever since the iPhone launched exclusively on AT&T's (NYSE:T) network, customers have hoped that Verizon would eventually land a deal with Apple to carry its popular smartphone, too. After all, claiming to have the largest, most reliable network means there are potentially a lot of iPhone-less customers out there.

CAPS member inastrangeland, for example, thinks that with all the company has going for it, Apple would naturally want to have a presence on Verizon's network. Here's an excerpt:

What's not to like? ... Huge cash flow, and in any and all metrics it outperforms it's peers. Now add the fact that they are currently rolling out 4G services and will be adding Android handsets this quarter and next year, I'm speculating, will get the iPhone. Apple cannot resist the 81 million customers on the Verizon network. Not to mention that [Verizon] is rolling out FIOS, the cable competitor in it's landline territory. It's a solid company, with solid growth, in spite of a bad economy and you get 6.5% just to own it.

AT&T's gotten bad publicity because bandwidth-hogging iPhone users are overtaxing its network, which only seems to increase Apple's potential to move the iPhone to new networks. So you have to wonder whether Verizon has somehow written off that possibility, as it prepares to launch the Droid. The new smartphone, based on the Android OS, is being introduced with an ad campaign that highlights all the flaws inherent in the iPhone.

If there are negotiations in the works, dissing Apple is a risky move for Verizon. If no deal's afoot, it could be a flat-out admission that Verizon users shouldn't expect an iPhone in their future anytime soon.

A chance for scary growth
It takes more than a few All-Star picks and a quick paragraph to make buy or sell decisions; start your own research on these stocks on Motley Fool CAPS. You can 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. And while you're there, weigh in with your own thoughts on whether you think these are tomorrow's monster stocks.