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.

Members of the Motley Fool CAPS community also like a bargain, apparently. Below, you'll find five companies whose shares are selling at least 50% below their 52-week highs, but that still earn high marks 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
Even before Spectrum Pharmaceuticals received FDA approval for its lymphoma drug Zevalin, its stock had been on a tear in anticipation of approval, and CAPS All-Star zzlangerhans had anticipated shares would drop on the news. That they did, but they were marching north again as the company anticipated getting approval for Fusilev, which treats advanced metastatic colorectal cancer.

Investors were disappointed this time, though, because the Food and Drug Administration sent a letter to Spectrum saying that Fusilev's data did not confirm the drug's "non-inferiority" to leucovorin. Gotta love the phrasing! Yet that actually confirms the suspicions held by another top CAPS member, aracer, who believed that Fusilev had experienced a big bump in sales earlier this year only because of a shortage of generic leucovorin and that it would be challenged when the supply lines opened again.

Spectrum does have a number of irons in the fire, making it more than a one-hit wonder, and Fusilev is approved as a second line of defense for bone cancer patients after they've received high doses of methotrexate therapy. With all of those levers, there was speculation last month that the company would make a good takeover candidate for Bayer or Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY). It was also able to use the renewed interest in its prospects to raise $50 million in an offering of shares and warrants in September priced at $7.55. Good timing.

Spectrum still carries a high four-star rating on CAPS, and 96% of the members rating it have tagged it to outperform the market. However, it has been one of the worst-performing drugmakers over the past month as investors fled after the FDA letter. While Bhavtrader had been looking forward to Spectrum getting approval, its other attributes are attractive, including the fact that it has no long-term debt on its balance sheet.

Say what you will
Another stock reflecting the hopes and fears of investors is American Capital, a business development company that has experienced its share of setbacks since the meltdown in the financial markets. With the company facing high debt, a recent history of losses (like industry peer Allied Capital (NYSE:ALD)), and a still-teetering industry, there's little wonder that investors are able to list a few motives for dumping the stock.

Yet there are at least two sides to every story, and American Capital also offers a pretty strong bull case. For one thing, despite industry woes, it can still generate strong cash flows while holding an investment portfolio that enables it to capitalize on strategic exits from positions.

CAPS member MizzouFanVan says American Capital's share price makes for a fantastic opportunity:

This stock is incredibly beaten down. Price to Book value is .37, which is crazy right now. And it continues to bring in Free Cash Flow. This is another company that survived the recession and will bounce back nicely.

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.