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 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
With everyone crossing his or her fingers, economic data seems to suggest that the recession has reached a bottom. The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index showed business activity picking up more than expected, while the prices paid index surprised analysts by falling for the fifth consecutive month. Even so, with a PMI at 40.1 in April, we’re still looking at an economy in contraction, even if it's shrinking less than it was before. Similarly, the ISM Manufacturing Survey also indicated the decline is moderating.

All of this is being achieved without the benefit of any so-called stimulus spending on the part of the government, which is destined to be too little, too late to be of any help -- though it won't stop the politicians from claiming credit for the U-turn.

Yet as the economy improves and manufacturing demand hardens, we'll see metals manufacturing businesses like Dynamic Materials, Reliance Steel (NYSE:RS), and Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) improve their bottom line.

Dynamic Materials, for example, reported first-quarter revenues and profits that were down as its explosion-welded clad metal plate segment fell 16%, but much of the loss was due to unfavorable currency exchange rates. Nevertheless, management expects the business they're pursuing will eventually pay off, even though they've had to scale back guidance for the year.

That could spell a booming opportunity for investors in the Motley Fool Hidden Gems recommendation. Even though Dynamic Materials' stock has tripled off the lows reached back in March, it still trades well below the highs of last year, and it may have more chances for explosive growth. CAPS member notzia evaluated the specialty metals company using several methods and found good reasons to believe it will outperform the market:

To ascertain that the price is attractive to me, I take one more thing into consideration. At the current price, would I expect an immediate 15% return on my investment (ROI) based on earnings and dividends? In this, the EPS represents about 14.6% of the share price by itself, so the 1.1% dividend yield is needed. However, because the dividend was needed to achieve the desired 15%, I also consider the risk that the dividend may be cut. This risk is assessed by evaluating several factors (Current Price, Current Yield, Current Payout Factor, Gross Margin, Operating Margin, Financial Leverage, EPS Growth). Based on this assessment, there is a low (most recent fiscal year) to moderate (TTM) risk that the dividend may be cut. Although greater weight is given to a TTM assessment, there is still enough certainty that the dividend will still support a 15% ROI.

Although I am not certain enough about the magnitude of my returns to actually invest in [Dynamic Materials] at this time, I feel that it will outperform the market as a whole.

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.