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 160,000 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.

Score is how many percentage points pick is beating the S&P 500.

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
In the U.S., oil companies and Wall Street firms are typically the ones walking around with big targets painted on their backs for politicians to take potshots at. When ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) reported record profits in the wake of oil rising to almost $150 barrel two summers ago, a windfall profits tax was once again discussed in the halls of Congress. And look at the politicians salivating at the prospects of extracting a pound of flesh from Wall Street's biggest banks.

In resource-rich Australia, the politicians are going after mining companies with a 40% tax on the profits they make to fund the government's insatiable spending appetite. Naturally, the mining companies with the most exposure to Australia's tax scheme -- BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) -- will bear the brunt of this, but steelmaker AK Steel was already forecasting possible margin contraction as iron ore prices soar skyward. It already priced in a 30% increase for its first-quarter results, and if costs rise higher than that, all bets are off on its second quarter.

Even with AK Steel saying it was "firmly on the road to recovery," CAPS member TraderMikeSays said last month he expected more downward pressure on AK Steel's stock from a technical standpoint and advised waiting for better prices. Nice call:

There is some capitulation selling going-on here, and the stock has changed into a downtrend. I'm betting on a turn-around for AKS. This one looks a little overdone to me, but it could have further downside in the near-term. You may want to wait for confirmation, you could get an even better entry point.

A nice tailwind
Utility operator Exelon was recently identified as being a dirt cheap stock, trading at just 10 times earnings. Rising electricity demand coupled with increased numbers of customers has management anticipating economic growth that will allow it to piggyback on its better than expected first-quarter results.

As the country's biggest nuclear power plant operator accounting for 20% of the country's capacity, CAPS member vinney11 sees an added benefit in that Exelon will avoid the onerous cap-and-trade legislation being considered: "Nuclear energy generation avoids the cap & trade threat. Seems quite undervalued these days and pays a decent dividend."

A deep breath
Aside from the market's hiccup last week, analysts say telecom equipment maker JDS Uniphase shouldn't have been hit as hard as it was because, all things considered, it's actually doing fairly well. Shares have been soaring this year, but there is a note of caution because shortages in the supply chain mean customers may be ordering more than they really need. The bulging bookings the equipment specialist recorded this quarter might not really line up with actual industry demand. What looks good right now, might turn pretty weak down the road and it's even impacting competitors like Finisar (Nasdaq: FNSR), which saw its stock taken down, too.

More than 750 CAPS members have weighed in with their opinion on the JDS Uniphase CAPS page, and 82% come down on the side of analysts, predicting the telecom and cable industry equipment provider will go on to outperform the broad market averages. Join them there and tell us whether you think it can still make the connection.

A chance for scary growth
It takes more than a few All-Star picks and a quick pitch to make buy or sell decisions, so start your own research on these stocks on Motley Fool CAPS and find other opportunities with monster potential.