3 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 three stocks that made some of the biggest upward moves over the past month. We'll pair that progress 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.

From April 1 to May 3.

As the markets whipsaw to changes in consumer sentiment, some weeks' gains will 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
In this case, does being early mean being wrong? CAPS All-Star member zzlangerhans dismissed the FDA fast-track status that Keryx Biopharmaceuticals earned for its colorectal cancer therapy perifosine:

But perifosine and Zerenex have only been successful in phase II and the phase III study of perifosine in colorectal cancer won't provide useful data before H2 2011. When the share price spiked yet again on the canard of fast-track for perifosine, I knew the time had come to red thumb.

Even though the stock surged higher after those comments -- suggesting an early call -- zzlangerhans is right about what the designation means for Keryx. There's a long, sad history of drugs receiving fast-track status, only to come up empty.

A 2007 review by the Cleveland newspaper The Plain Dealer found that half the drugs receiving the designation were either shelved by developers, or suffered serious setbacks. It noted that most would never get FDA approval. In fact, the paper found that only four companies out of the hundreds that had received the designation actually told investors fast-track status was no guarantee of approval. Those commendably honest businesses included Protein Design Labs (now known as PDL BioPharma (Nasdaq: PDLI)), Myogen (now a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD), and New River Pharmaceuticals and Matrix Pharmaceutical, both of which were also acquired by others.

A review of Keryx's press release about gaining fast-track status only says that such drugs are ordinarily granted a priority review with an expedited review process -- no warnings or caveats.

Still, more than 84% of CAPS members rating Keryx believe it will outperform the market. Head over to the Keryx Biopharmaceutical CAPS page, and tell us whether it's on the fast track to greatness or the road to nowhere.

IMOS in the morning
With Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and other chip stocks reporting strong earnings these days, it's not surprising that tiny testing services provider ChipMOS Technologies is also seeing stronger sales. The company reported a 7% year-over-year increase in fourth-quarter revenue back in March -- a more than 14% sequential jump from February.

Yet All-Star UltraLong is as unimpressed with ChipMOS as zzlangerhans was with Keryx:

ChipMOS isn't as bad as they once were but they're nowhere near as good as this meteoric rise is indicating. At their best IMOS can expect minus 7%-11% gross margins for the quarter and thats coming from the horses mouth! They haven't turned a profit or had solid orders since 2008. Revenues aren't as horrid as expected but with over 400M in net debt who cares. They're losing money and burning cash. Not impressed. 

Still feeling the aftershocks
Though commercial real estate mortgages are going delinquent at record rates, RAIT Financial Trust is soaring higher, with shares hitting levels that not been seen since 2008. That's still a long way down from its peak, but it's a marked turnaround. Nor is the company alone. iStar Financial has also rocketed upward, climbing more than 170% since the start of the year.

CAPS All-Star TSIF praises RAIT Financial, which has been working diligently to repair its balance sheet:

Risky, speculative, but fits within my risk/reward and while short term may be rocky, I think RAIT has some long term potential. IF any of the REIT's ever return to dividend paying status then a sub $3 entry point will quickly be returned.

Shake, rattle, and roll
It pays to start your own research on these market-shaking stocks 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.