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

Naturally, we want you to look 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
Only two of the Dow's 30 stocks closed 2008 in the black, while just 5% of those on the S&P 500 had a wonderful year, ending higher than they started. So it's not too surprising to find companies from elsewhere around the globe also suffering horribly and seeing their valuations significantly depressed.

According to the market researchers at The PBN Co., some foreign nationals have had an even worse go of it than the Americans. Nine out of 10 Russian companies, for example, destroyed any value created over the past 12 years, with only eight possessing a higher market cap than at their IPO, including Wimm-Bill-Dann (NYSE:WBD) and Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE:MBT). The one that has retained the most value over that period of time was Vimpel-Communications, growing 1,066% since 1996.

Yet the mobile-communications provider is being criticized for raising rates on popular calling plans at a particularly difficult time for Russians, merely to boost revenues to help it meet debt payments. Vimpel has some significant debt that it is trying to pay off, and it recently signed two nonrevolving credit line agreements with a state bank for around $500 million, which it intends to use to refinance its existing foreign currency indebtedness.

That could be an important move. Calming jittery investors has been a top priority since December, when a state-owned aircraft leasing company became the first such firm to default on its debt since the 1998 Russian financial crisis. And despite having more than $9 billion in debt, Vimpel-Communications still generates significant investor support.

CAPS member thefirm2009 sees the debt situation stabilizing later this year and predicts good things for the ruble, making this an opportune time to invest:

A premier runner in the telecom industry in the greater Russia and Surrounding areas with unlimited expansion potential. Additional serviced aimed for the current and [future] markets is untapped, Currently selling for way below value. All long-term debt will be stabilized in less than a year when the ruble becomes strong again. There is no real downside to the company at this point besides the slidign ruble, but that will cease by Spring 2009 and begin to rebound.

Another bullish view is offered by top-rated CAPS All-Star Trimalerus:

This undervalued stock is a good buy as the telecommunication market in Russia is still in it's infancy and this company is well positioned for growth.

Have half a mind
It pays to start your own research on these stocks on Motley Fool CAPS. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made, all from a stock's CAPS page.

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