Your stock just took a nosedive -- but don't panic. First, let's see whether it had good reason to fall. Sometimes, panic-fueled drops can make excellent buying opportunities. Here's the latest crop of cratered stocks that could provide a possibility for profit:
Stock | CAPS Rating | Tuesday's Change |
|---|---|---|
| Capstone Turbine | *** | (17.4%) |
| SunPower | *** | (14.6%) |
| Owens-Illinois | ** | (13.5%) |
Easy come, easy go. A day after the markets rejoiced over retail sales data, they plunged into gloom over Greece's financial situation, dropping almost 179 points, or 1.5%. With bond king Bill Gross saying the U.S.'s condition is even worse than Greece's, stocks that went down by even larger percentages are pretty big deals.
The devil's in the details
Growth is coming to Capstone Turbine, the question is, are investors patient enough to wait? The microturbine maker can deliver energy-efficient heat and power for customers, and its backlog is growing, surging 26% this quarter. If its plans to tap the Eagle Ford and Marcellus shale regions go as planned -- it sold its first microturbine there last year -- the returns can be enormous. Marathon Oil
The microturbines provide power to remote well sites that might otherwise find it difficult to generate any efficiently. Capstone has already sold 20 megawatts of turbines in less than a year in the shale region; as shale operations expand, so should the microturbine maker.
But Capstone hasn't been profitable thus far and its earnings results the other day didn't improve the picture. While revenues were higher, they fell short of expectations, and adjusted earnings were woefully under what Wall Street was anticipating.
CAPS member BlackCloudMedic says the company needs to concentrate on turning a profit soon, though he likes it as a takeover target:
Margins need to grow. The orders keep coming in and the backlog gets larger. Buyout??? Possibly but I like this stock. I'm long on CPST
Keep an eye on Capstone's future by adding its stock to the Fool's free portfolio tracker, where all the news and analysis is brought together in one place.
Rainy day fund
While big oil companies are investing heavily in natural gas, they're also looking elsewhere for potential profits. Total's
So why the recent slide? A majority of SunPower's shareholders agreed to tender their stock to Total, and the deadline for doing so has passed. Since SunPower's latest earnings results were soft, the slide was fully expected.
Even with Total's backing, many CAPS members don't think solar power will be more than a sideshow to our dependence on oil. uzzellcaps says solar will never generate enough electricity to be mainstream, while MajorBob04 cautions Total's input won't help it surmount the headwinds it's facing.
Let us know on the SunPower CAPS page whether you think the oil giant's stake will keep the sun shining on the sector.
Shattered glass
Even though shipments are expected to grow 5% to 10% this year and free cash flow will hit $300 million, glass bottle maker Owens-Illinois will be hitting a glass ceiling on margins. It originally predicted profits would keep pace with last year, which came in at 16% of revenues, but the new outlook suggests they may fall as much as 6% below last year's effort.
The wine market in the Asia-Pacific region has been weak, with a bumper crop of grapes depressing prices. Struggling wine exports from Australia have hit OI hard, as have the costs associated with restarting several furnaces. Still, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for just 15% of OI's revenues in 2010, with the majority (41%) coming from Europe, followed by North America (28%). Some of its biggest customers are brewers like Anheuser-Busch InBev
CAPS member mimihoohoo2 sees Owens as a Buffett-style stock, a company with a wide competitive moat and high hurdles to entry:
Stock repurchase plan and a shareholder friendly management warrant a much higher valuation for this business, which enjoys a wide-moat of protection, as any would-be competitor could never duplicate the many existing bottling plants near OI's existing customers, as such an effort would take decades and prohibitive amounts of capital. This business could easily command a much higher valuation. This is truly a Buffett-style value stock.
Is Owens-Illinois fragile like China or as tough as plate glass? Let us know in the comments section below and add its stock to the Fool's free portfolio tracker.
Ready for a resurrection
Just because your stock has taken a beating doesn't mean it's going to roll over and die. Markets are known for overreacting. A closer look on Motley Fool CAPS at what's happened to your stock can give you an edge over other investors who just react to the market's lead. You can decide for yourself whether it's ready to come back from the dead.
