Technology stocks are some of the most fascinating and lucrative investments that an individual can make. Yet they can also be extremely volatile, taking investors on a roller-coaster ride that they may have never anticipated.

Fortunately, here at The Motley Fool CAPS we have a way of trying to anticipate which companies are doomed to defeat or poised to pop. Our investing community of 165,000 people aggregates intelligence and ranks stocks according to their ability to outperform the market moving forward. A one-star stock is least likely to outperform, while five-star stocks are the true studs of the investing universe.

Today we'll look at seven tech stocks that have a four- or five-star ranking, yet have taken a real beating as of late. They are all trading well below their 12-month high and have more-than-reasonable P/E ratios. Here is a list of the seven stocks that fit my criteria, listed in rank-order according to how drastically they are trading below their recent high:

Stock

% Below 12-Month High

P/E Ratio

CAPS Rating
(out of 5)

TeleCommunication Systems (Nasdaq: TSYS)

71.5%

6.8

****

STEC (Nasdaq: STEC)

69.6%

13.9

****

Conexant Systems (Nasdaq: CNXT)

67.9%

2.5

****

Yucheng Technologies (Nasdaq: YTEC)

65.7%

13.7

*****

DragonWave (Nasdaq: DRWI)

57.4%

5.1

*****

Jinpan International (NYSE: JST)

56.8%

10.0

*****

Neutral Tandem (Nasdaq: TNDM)

54.8%

10.7

*****

Source: CAPS data, Aug 17th.

Although the recovery in the market seems to be stalling, there are plenty of large and small cap, quality companies that are trading at extremely reasonable prices. Tech stocks, which are notoriously expensive, seem to be offering the best opportunity in a decade. Take a look at these seven stocks as a great starting point for your own research -- they've already won over the minds of the CAPS community, so try and distinguish between those companies being dragged down for good reason and those that are just victims of Mr. Market.

Have a strong opinion about any of the companies listed above? Let us hear it in the comments below!