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, which we'll pair 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 July 6 through Aug. 5.

As the markets whipsaw to changes in what appear to be better earnings, the S&P 500 has been rallying. 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
Not so long ago, Nymox Pharmaceutical was rockin' and rollin' on positive developments for its enlarged prostate treatment NX-1207. Now it's back in the spotlight again, as a follow-up phase 3 clinical trial showed the investigational drug reduced patients' urgency to urinate by 52% after three months, compared with a placebo.

Of course, even if it's ultimately approved, as I noted last time, Nymox still faces competing treatments such as alpha blockers and 5-alpha reductase inhibitors from big-name pharmaceuticals Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT), and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK).

Yet mshakin1 isn't fazed in the least by the Goliaths confronting the David that is Nymox, believing that the latter's drug candidate has a sling full of stones to defeat them:

The [Nymox] drug for BPH, NX1207, is head and shoulders above all the existing drugs for this ailment, which affects tens of millions of middle age and elderly men. Not only is NX1207 so much more effective than Flomax and Avodart is decreasing BPH, but it also doesn't have the sexual side effects. And instead of taking hose drugs every day forever, NX1207 is an injection administered in a urologist's office only once every several years.

A speedy opportunity
Remember that unpronounceable volcano in Iceland whose plume of lava and ash caused Europe to shut down its airline industry? Neither did travelers. They took flight in the latest quarter, sending online travel agents priceline.com and Orbitz Worldwide soaring skyward. Not even unrest in Thailand, which represents a large part of Priceline's Asian travel service Agoda, could keep the online travel agent (OTA) grounded. Its stock jumped $51 one day, and threw on another $11 the next just for good measure. It's now up more than 120% over the past year.

priceline simply blew past analyst expectations, posting earnings of $3.09 per share compared to forecasts of $2.65 a stub. Its Bookings.com business is doing much better in Europe than Expedia (NYSE: EXPE), despite the latter's larger presence. But Expedia shouldn't feel too badly; it also handily beat expectations, and its international operations still jumped by more than 20%.

Orbitz also benefited from greater volumes of travelers, even though its profits narrowed in the quarter. With earnings finally positive after two straight quarters of losses, Orbitz says earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization for the full year should come in 5% to 10% higher than 2009.

All-Star addedupon is looking forward to priceline vindicating its reverse split from a few years ago as its stock closes in on $300 a share:

reversal of reverse split coming soon! look for a 6:1 split as PCLN share price approaches 300; such a move would represent a powerful milestone and symbolize vindication for this dot com bubble company left for dead early in the decade. its 1:6 reverse split in 2003 was widely viewed as a hopeless act of desparation.

While Orbitz has done better this quarter, investors remain concerned. Almost 30% of CAPS members rating the OTA think it will underperform the broad-market averages. You can book your own opinion on the Orbitz CAPS page.

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.