Ah, skepticism, how I love thee.
We rebel investors at Motley Fool Rule Breakers believe the multibaggers in the making, while not often cheap by the numbers, are always misunderstood. As such, they face extraordinary skepticism, which, in turn, makes them excellent value stocks.
More are out there. Each week, right here in this column, we'll hunt them down. Grab your keyboard.
What one stock can do for you
Really, it's worth your time. One home run stock can make all the difference to your portfolio.
Just ask David Gardner, captain of the good pirate ship Rule Breakers, who bought Amazon at a split-adjusted price of $3.24 a share in 1997. He's up almost 2,700% since.
That helped him to overcome stinging losses from Sirius Satellite Radio, 3Dfx, and others to put up nine years of better than 20% average annual returns as the leader of the real-money Rule Breaker portfolio.
Let the haters be your friends
Today, David and his team still seek misunderstood growers. You can, too, with the help of our completely free-of-charge Motley Fool CAPS investor-intelligence database, which currently contains information on more than 5,000 stocks.
CAPS applies user input to rate stocks from one star (low) to five (high). Using CAPS, we're once again going to search for one- and two-star stocks that have at least 5% of their available shares sold short but are expected to grow their earnings by no less than 15% over each of the next five years.
Let's have the list
Now, with that preamble behind us, here are five unloved growth stocks:
Company |
Short Interest |
5-Year Growth Estimate |
|
---|---|---|---|
Align Technology |
** |
14.40% |
25.0% |
Human Genome Sciences |
** |
19.00% |
25.0% |
Evergreen Solar |
** |
16.30% |
23.5% |
Champion Enterprises |
** |
26.90% |
15.0% |
Ariba |
** |
10.50% |
15.0% |
Bear in mind that this isn't a list of recommendations. Instead, I offer these stocks as candidates for further research. But, of these five, I like Evergreen Solar as a long-term speculation.
I don't say that easily. There are too many companies hawking solar and, as a whole, stocks in this industry are overpriced relative to their growth. And yes, I am including Evergreen, which charges investors $9.60 for each dollar of revenue, in that equation.
That said, Evergreen has made dramatic improvements in returns on capital and equity in recent quarters. And with oil now nearing $90 a barrel, solar technology has rarely looked so attractive. Evergreen stands to profit mightily as more of us turn to the sun. CAPS investor PA100 explains:
Company appears on track [for] long-term profitability ... [Its] String Ribbon technology gives it a cost advantage on most of its competitors. It also has about $750 million in long-term contracts.
Intrigued? Do your own due diligence and then check in with thousands of other investors at CAPS. And, if you'd like, add your own commentary. You'll be helping your fellow Fools and testing your ideas at the same time. Click here to get started now; the service is 100% free.
See you back here next week for five more unloved growth stocks.