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 cry about 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.

Hansen poised for Monster growth
It's probably an overused pun to suggest that Hansen Natural has been energized by its Monster brand overtaking Red Bull in the energy-drink category. While the segment still has room for growth both here and abroad, a possible distribution deal with Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) could ultimately get Hansen's shares racing. 

The potential growth from that deal has CAPS member Bullbuzz hoping Hansen will regain momentum: "Continued growth for healthy natural drinks will continue to grow over the next few years. Hansen is well positioned to participate in this growth sector and should exceed expectations over the next several years."

E*Trade on the rebound?
When the bottom gave out for E*Trade Financial because of its exposure to mortgages last year, I rushed over to CAPS to rate the company an outperform. I believed the discount broker had erred in moving away from its core business of facilitating low-cost trades, but I also thought it had taken steps to rectify the situation and wouldn't need a life preserver from either TD AMERITRADE or Schwab (NASDAQ:SCHW).

Such are the perils of rushing into anything related to investing, even if my CAPS score doesn't reflect the bad timing. Only the overall market's equally bad performance has saved me from what should have been a disaster pick. Still, I find myself agreeing with CAPS member TravisMcGee; he values E*Trade's brand name, and figures it's only a matter of time before the company's situation turns around again:

Etrade has a great brand. The management of Etrade took a very wrong turn several years ago and lost site of their core strategy and started investing in home mortgages, without a default plan. Wall Street has scorned Etrade for doing this and drove its stock price down to near bankrupt levels. Calling the kettle black? … With Etrades new management and the "getting back to basics" philosophy, Etrade will emerge as a market leader in the discount brokerage sector. … Soon Etrade will be in talks, again, with possible merger partners, only this time Etrade will be talking on grounds of [strength] and not bailout.

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.