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
Mideast turmoil? Check. Oil near $100 a barrel? Check! Natural gas prices still attractively undervalued? Check! Natural gas promoter Clean Energy Fuels rallying on the favorable market conditions? Ch ... what the? Here's a company that has market forces at its back, yet its shares have fallen on hard times, dropping 14% over the past month alone. This is what you might call a "buying opportunity."

Clean Energy continues to build out its network of refueling stations, operating more than 200 nationally that fuel more than 20,000 vehicles. It even secured an agreement to be Ford's (NYSE: F) official aftermarket provider of natural gas conversion kits. With the price disparity between oil and gas so large, it seems like a no-brainer that natural-gas-fueled vehicles will gain in popularity, even if the tipping point is still a few years away.

Unlike rival Fuel Systems Solutions (Nasdaq: FSYS), part of Clean Energy's current problem is that it continues to hemorrhage cash. To make up for shortfalls, Clean Energy dilutes its stock through new share offerings. Since its last offering in November, Clean Energy's shares are down 16%.

While longer-term trends are in its favor, the short term is likely to keep pressure on Clean Energy's stock, and CAPS member davfoo says only the promise of profitability will help it move up: "I love what this company is trying to do, but profitability is still a little way off. My guess is that this will continue to trend down toward $10 until they start showing profitability."

A reserve player
Whether it's dry-bulk vessels or oil tankers, the glut of ships has depressed the market and taken its toll on Genco Shipping & Trading. Dayrates are down sharply and fleet operators have been forced to branch out. DryShips is transporting oil; Diana Shipping is moving containers.

For bulk shippers like Genco and Navios Maritime (NYSE: NM) that have stayed the course, it's been some rough sailing. Genco's shares are down 40% year over year while Navios sits 30% below its 52-week high.

However, at less than three times earnings and five times estimates, Genco is one of the cheapest shippers on the market. It trades at a miniscule valuation compared to its book value, no doubt because of analyst concerns over its exposure to the spot market. While other shippers may have little to no such exposure, any rebound in rates is going to lift Genco's boat first rather than those locked into long-term charters. With the Baltic Dry Index at levels not seen since the depths of the recession, there seems less downside risk here and much of the devastation has been priced in.

CAPS member rosssmith20 says Genco remains in fine financial shape:

Genco is primed to take off. It has an awesome balance sheet, generates profit consistently, and is well undervalued. I am looking to see it get back to 20 soon.

Let us know on the Genco Shipping & Trading CAPS page whether this dry-bulk shipper will have the wind fill out its sails again.

On the level
Smoothie maker Jamba is reinventing itself by expanding beyond fruit drinks, blending new opportunities by offering warm drinks and food to take on Starbucks and fruit-based energy drinks that will squarely challenge Hansen Natural (Nasdaq: HANS). It's beginning to pay off, too, as stores open at least 13 quarters (a little more than three years) saw revenue inch up 0.2% in the fourth quarter. Flagging sales at its older stores have been a problem for Jamba, but CAPS member steveadl is optimistic:

Plenty of potential through; franchising, international growth, licensing partnerships. They need to sort out the domestic front first though and move to a more franchise based model, which they are in the process of doing.

Have half a mind
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