10 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 compiled 10 stocks that made some of the biggest upward moves over the past month. Then we paired them 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.

^Oct. 16 to Nov. 16.

As the markets whipsaw to changes in consumer sentiment, there will be weeks like this one, where gains exceptionally outpace those of prior weeks' movers and shakers. 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
You've probably heard of cloud computing; now get ready for the launch of the HyperCloud. Virtually unknown, $108 million Netlist will soon introduce a memory module that essentially fools a server into thinking it has more main memory than it is supposed to. Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) offers that now, which might make Netlist's entrant the clear runner-up. The only difference is that Netlist's product virtualization takes place inside the memory module rather than on the motherboard, as Cisco's does.

I'm no tech geek, but the big deal here is that Netlist's virtual sleight of hand apparently allows you to overcome underutilized memory bandwidth and memory capacity bottlenecks. At the same time, it has the potential to halve the number of servers needed for cloud-computing services, leaping past current memory limitation solutions. This could be a huge cost savings to companies, even if Netlist is charging a premium for its product.

Cloud computing is all the rage these days, and Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison rightly says the term has pretty much been hijacked to include virtually everything going on in offsite computing. All the same, Netlist's HyperCloud module might help companies realize the true benefits of cloud computing.

Netlist was flying under the radar of most of Wall Street (only one analyst covers it) and much of the CAPS community, as fewer than 100 members have rated the memory virtualization specialist. Yet those who did came down decidedly in favor of it outperforming the market, as it did in spades this month as it prepared to unveil its technological advance today at a supercomputing conference.

Highly rated CAPS All-Star TrafficDesign recognizes the leap Netlist's product is making, and says it's the real deal:

This technology is a major advance in the right direction for server performance...which is one of the main issues plaguing IT reliability with memory driven applications. I see the entertainment industry being the first to use this new technology. Right now, rendering can take days on standard server setups. HyperCloud can reduce the time and energy used by computing systems for these types of processes. This is not an over "hyped" product by any means. It really is worth the attention it's getting.

Of course, this tremendous surge in share price might mean that the stock will give back some of its gains, as the euphoria wears off and investors lock in profits. Another CAPS All-Star, tenmiles, is betting on that scenario. Yet the HyperCloud solution could help Netlist overcome the commoditization of its existing product line, which led to revenue plummeting 77% in the third quarter.

I've already admitted to my technological ignorance in this area, but I'm guessing we haven't heard the last from Netlist. Head over to Netlist's CAPS page, and tell us whether this is the next leap forward in cloud computing, or just more low-lying fog.

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.