3 Top Stocks at Half-Price

You love buying your shirts when they go on sale. And who can resist a buy-one-get-one-free offer? So when our stocks go on sale, why do we bemoan their low prices?

Smart investors like Warren Buffett or Marty Whitman love it when their stocks are suddenly selling at bargain-basement prices. For them, these companies become no-brainer buys.

The investors in the Motley Fool CAPS community also like a bargain, apparently. Below, you'll find three companies whose shares are selling at least 50% below their 52-week highs but which still earn high honors from our investor-intelligence database. Consider it a BOGO sale on stocks.

Naturally, we want you to look a bit closer at these stocks before buying. You can get low-priced appliances in the dent-and-ding section of your home-remodeling superstore, but their quality might not be so good. Same thing here: Make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with the company before you plug it into your portfolio.

Take two, they're small
Unlike the specious arguments used by American Oriental Bioengineering (NYSE: AOB) to justify the purchase of a convention center, China Electric Motor's purchase of an industrial park seems to make a lot more sense. First, it already owns part of the property, and that accounts for 60% of its production capacity. Another 20% of its capacity comes from one of the buildings that will be part of the package. By obtaining full ownership, it will be gaining production facilities, an office building, a staff dormitory, and a power distribution house.

China Electric rival Harbin Electric (Nasdaq: HRBN) has come under fire over concerns about the veracity of its financial statements, a plague that's settled on a number of Chinese small-cap stocks, and I've expressed concerns about China Electric Motor's opaqueness, too. But more than 98% of the CAPS members rating the motor maker have indicated that they think it will outperform the market. durcar86 thinks the company's expansion opportunities give it a green light.

Only you can decide whether Harbin Electric will be a hot investment again. Add it to your watchlist where all the Foolish news and analysis about this stock is aggregated for you.

A reserve player
Nanotech VC firm Harris & Harris has cause to be cautiously optimistic these days. It believes many of its investments are well-financed, at least for the immediate future, which means they won't have to go through additional rounds of raising capital that might result in significant dilution of its ownership stake. Moreover, Harris itself won't need additional financing either as it has $44 million in the bank, which will allow it to help its investments to break even on their cash flows or let them exit their position.

While one of its portfolio companies, Laser Light Engines -- which develops super-bright laser-driven light sources for projection devices -- did go through more financing recently, strategic partner IMAX (Nasdaq: IMAX) was one of those who joined in the round. They're looking to develop a light source that's two to five times brighter than xenon bulbs currently used in 3-D movie screenings.

With partners like that, it's easy to see why Harris trading at a discount to its net asset value has some investors expecting it to be a tech stock that will make them rich. But let us know on the Harris & Harris CAPS page whether there's a big future in this tiny stock.

A bone of contention
Although bone spackle maker Orthovita is seeing greater sales of its medical products, investors haven't swarmed to the stock, perhaps as a result of the changing dynamics of the company. It needed to shake up its sales staff to account for its product being used more in an outpatient setting than inpatient, which has sliced margins a bit. But it has turned profitable and won approval from the Food and Drug Administration to use its bone graft substitute for new indications.

The substitute will be made by Kensey Nash (Nasdaq: KNSY), which Orthovita has a close manufacturing relationship with. Orthovita buys the collagen it uses from them, though it recently won approval to build its own manufacturing plant.

Highly rated CAPS All-Star whomonkyoulus sees enormous market potential in Orthovita's products, but only you can decide whether it is right for your portfolio. Add the medical products maker to Fool.com's free portfolio tracker to keep track of its progress.

Have half a mind
Sign up today for the free CAPS service, and tell us whether these stocks are twice as good at half the price.