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
The overarching theme of China's economic growth is that it's going to need oil to fuel its engine. That was part of the attraction behind an investment in China North East Petroleum, whose agreement with PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) seemed to ensure it would be able to feed off that need. Investors were subsequently rocked by it being caught up in its rendition of a scandal involving a Chinese small cap fudging its numbers. Like RINO International, its shares were ultimately delisted.

But China North East Petroleum is trying to make a comeback. It sacked management, hired Ernst & Young to audit its books, and regained its American Stock Exchange listing. Many investors look at its valuation, and while cognizant of the recent turmoil, think it's just too cheap to pass up anymore. After all, the deal with PetroChina is still intact and the oil giant has agreed to buy all the oil it produces.

CAPS member djpederson says demand for oil goes on unabated and it remains an exciting opportunity, risk and all:

Undervalued due to bad accounting and political risk in China. The demand for oil and the rapidly improving environment in China makes this an exciting yet risking play that could easily pop for 3x.

Do you agree it's still worth tapping into this oil play? Let us know in the comments section below or on the China North East Petroleum CAPS page.

A reserve player
Despite reporting results last December that offered the promise of success for its therapy to treat Lou Gehrig's disease, investors have been bidding shares of Cytokinetics down for the better part of a year. After a short spike following the publication of study results, the stock continued its downward trend.

Perhaps today's news that it and Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) plan to initiate a phase IIb clinical trial for patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction will help turn things around. The biopharmaceutical has several irons in the fire, and it's the potential for their success that's led 90% of the CAPS members rating Cytokinetics to believe it will eventually outperform the broad market averages.

Wall Street is certainly on board, with all six analysts following the company thinking it will beat the market. Add Cytokinetics to the Fool's free portfolio tracker to stay up to date on news and analysis.

On the level
There are some very good arguments as to why India is no China, but that doesn't mean there aren't still some very good investments in the subcontinent that could make them grow like they were bubble stocks from their neighboring emerging market.

For example, as China's labor costs rise, companies are looking to India and other Asian countries to provide a source of cheap labor. Luxury handbag maker Coach (NYSE: COH) is just one that has announced its intention to look to India to help contain expenses. The country itself plans to upgrade its infrastructure by increasing the number of broadband connections by 700% next year, providing growth drivers that both Sify Technologies and Rediff.com (Nasdaq: REDF) can capitalize on.

Despite slipping to a loss this past quarter, Sify has been outperforming its industry peer on a regular basis, but CAPS member raycfong77 says it's not an either/or proposition: "Emerging market play. India is the next big boom where I expect SIFY and REDF to be big players in the Internet boom here."

Add Sify to your watchlist, then head over to the Sify Technologies CAPS page and tell us how big India's growth opportunity could be.

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