7 Highly Rated Stocks on Sale

I am always looking for a good deal, whether that means buying an extra box of Golden Grahams when they're on sale or pouncing on undervalued stocks. The idea that anybody would sell a stock for less than its worth may seem silly, but legendary value investor Ben Graham (no relation to the cereal) tells us, by way of allegory, how we can look out for these situations.

In The Intelligent Investor, Graham introduces readers to a wacky chap named Mr. Market. Mr. Market's game is to pay you house calls on a daily basis to offer to sell you interests in businesses he owns or to buy from you interests in businesses you own. Sometimes Mr. Market will show up at your door very excited and offer you premium prices for your holdings, while at other times he'll be inconsolably depressed about the future and will offer to sell you what he has for as low as pennies on the dollar.

So to find some of the stocks that Mr. Market is depressed about, I've turned once again to The Motley Fool's CAPS investor community. Each of the companies below had been given a five-star rating (the highest) by our community of investors just 30 days ago:

Data from Motley Fool CAPS as of September 23.

As the table shows, these stocks are all still very well-regarded by the CAPS community despite their underperformance over the past month. While these are not formal recommendations, they could be a great place to kick off some further research. I'll even get you started with some thoughts on Allied Irish Banks.

Why so blue?
It may have been Rock Master Scott and the Dynamic Three that first recorded the famous phrase "the roof is on fire," but it's been the U.S. real estate industry over the past couple years that has really made us feel the heat of those flames. However, if you think that it's just U.S. real estate that's being charbroiled, then let's talk about Ireland for a moment.

Similar to the US, Ireland has benefited from a long boom in real estate values, and the nation's banks likewise fueled the run with relaxed lending standards. Ireland, however, is even more dependent on the housing and financial sectors for its economic growth than the U.S. Yeah, I know, it's shocking.

So how bad is it? The Dublin index is down nearly 70% from the peak. Now that's a drubbing that makes the U.S. market's declines look like a gentle massage.

Zeroing in on Allied Irish Banks, as one of the four largest banks in Ireland, Allied Irish has taken it on the chin as results in the financial sector have deteriorated, along with investors' outlook for financial companies in general. And things only got worse last week when The Bank of Ireland warned investors about accelerating defaults and declining profits and cut its dividend in half.

What the bulls say
It just so happens that Allied Irish is the most diversified of the Irish banks and has operations in the UK and Poland, as well as a 24% stake in the US's M&T Bank -- which, incidentally, has held up fairly well. While this doesn't mean that it will miss out on big real estate related losses -- and the UK is certainly no picnic right now -- it means that at least its risk isn't focused on Ireland alone. The bank has also felt confident enough to leave its dividend put, providing an impressive double-digit current yield.

While it's hard to argue that some haircut to Allied Irish's stock wasn't in order, the 68% that it's fallen since its high for the year seems a bit extreme to many CAPS members. Wayfarer2003, one of the 1,622 Allied Irish bulls on CAPS, recently gave the stock a thumbs up and delivered a strong pitch in favor of the company:

With the financial markets still a mess, it may be early to pick an Irish bank, but I'm opening up the vault again. Twenty years ago Ireland had one of the weakest economies in Europe. Today it has one of the strongest. It experienced strong growth during the last couple decades due to its highly educated work force, relatively low corporate tax rates, government investment in education and economic development, and EU membership.

He went on to remark on the company's favorable price-to-book and price-to-sales ratios, as well as the rich dividend.

So do you think the recent drop has created a good buying opportunity? Or is there more downside ahead? Let the community know what you think -- head over to CAPS and share your thoughts with the other 115,000-plus players currently part of the community. Even if you'd prefer to pass on Allied Irish, you can check out a couple of the other stocks listed above or any of the 5,500 stocks that are rated on CAPS.

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