83 Stocks that Doubled Your Money In the First Half of 2009

Submitted By Trader Mark
It's been a wild and volatile first half of 2009. We followed one of the worst periods in history (Jan-Feb) with one of the best (Mar-Apr)... and topped it off with a stagnant market (May-Jun) to finish off the quarter. For all this the S&P is up a staggering 1.5% for the year to date.

But if you bought some of the stocks below on Dec 31st, 2008 - went off on the long planned tripped to Tahiti (hence, not panicking in the dark days of February through early March) and just showed up today - congrats! I've pulled a group of stocks with the following criteria:

Criteria

Market capitalization $500M+
Average trading volume 200K+
Stock price $10+
Return year to date 100%+

With the market capitalization requirement I mostly pulled in the larger "small caps", mid cap, and large cap stocks; this generated 83 ways for you to of doubled your money. At the very bottom of the post I pulled another 23 names of the smaller cap variety - that group are names smaller than $500M in market cap but larger than $200M. Below that $200M level it really starts to get speculative.

These names are not sorted by return but by market capitalization, from largest to smallest - as always it is easier to make big bucks (or lose them) in the smaller names. Of course some of these stocks will continue to do great things in the 2nd half of 2009, others will "revert to the mean" and be major under performers. If you can tell which goes in which of those 2 categories, you will have a very enjoyable second half of the year. I asked my trusty Magic 8 Ball, and unfortunately this is what she said.

Blog readers will find many familiar names.... I've highlighted names we own, have once owned, or have talked about in the blog in light blue.

Symbol Company Name % Price Mkt Cap BCS Barclays ADR 109.5 38,496 FCX Freeport McMoRan Copper/Gold 117.5 20,724 WFT Weatherford International Ltd 100.3 13,986 BIDU Baidu Inc 144.7 10,303 SLT Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd 144.8 9,330 TCK Teck Resources Ltd 240.3 7,820 WDC Western Digital Corp 141.0 5,904 STX Seagate Technology 151.6 5,057 MDR McDermott International Inc 131.5 4,692 EXPE Expedia Inc (Del) 112.3 4,589 XL XL Capital Ltd 238.9 3,931 TX Ternium SA 123.8 3,508 CE Celanese Corp 112.3 3,424 NAV Navistar International Corp 144.5 3,252 AN Autonation Inc 104.8 3,108 CTRP Ctrip.com 108.4 3,001 RS Reliance Steel & Aluminum 101.3 2,826 GT Goodyear Tire & Rubber 110.3 2,757 WFMI Whole Foods Market Inc 107.9 2,639 CREE Cree Inc 100.5 2,624 DNDN Dendreon Corp 457.8 2,571 ARO Aeropostale Inc 119.7 2,313 WYN Wyndham Worldwide Corp 104.5 2,210 PALM Palm Inc 402.2 2,210 GMCR Green Mountain Coffee Roasters 128.9 2,200 AKS AK Steel Holding Corp 125.6 2,118 ASH Ashland Inc 194.1 2,076 BGC General Cable Corp 136.4 1,976 WLT Walter Energy Inc 129.5 1,948 CTCM CTC Media Inc 154.1 1,879 VPRT VistaPrint Ltd 161.7 1,821 ACF AmeriCredit Corp 110.3 1,798 SIG Signet Jewelers Ord Shs 146.7 1,776 STAR Starent Networks Corp 133.1 1,737 RAX Rackspace Hosting Inc 152.2 1,717 YGE Yingli Green Energy Holding 146.4 1,677 JCG J Crew Group Inc 136.4 1,666 RVBD Riverbed Technology Inc 132.9 1,623 PAG Penske Automotive Group 151.7 1,569 DRQ Dril-Quip Inc 102.3 1,498 BEAV BE Aerospace Inc 123.3 1,433 TIN Temple-Inland Inc 204.8 1,366 LCAPA Liberty Media Corp 229.2 1,351 SYNA Synaptics Inc 156.6 1,314 TC Thompson Creek Metals Co Inc 157.9 1,301 EJ E House China Holdings Ltd 112.3 1,288 FCL Foundation Coal Holdings Inc 123.6 1,281 TSRA Tessera Technologies Inc 126.0 1,233 TRW TRW Automotive Holdings Corp 279.6 1,151 STEC STEC Inc 484.9 1,142 ASCA Ameristar Casinos Inc 154.6 1,124 GFA Gafisa ADR 100.5 1,073 IOC InterOil Corp 169.0 1,072 MWE MarkWest Energy Partners L P 137.1 1,041 BWEN Broadwind Energy Inc 128.1 1,035 NEU NewMarket Corp 103.5 1,032 TNDM Neutral Tandem Inc 108.3 1,024 TPX Tempur Pedic International Inc 104.2 1,014 WXS Wright Express Corp 113.8 962 PEGA Pegasystems Inc 128.5 947 GRA W.R. Grace & Co 162.4 937 JNY Jones Apparel Group Inc 132.5 904 SVNT Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc 194.3 881 CAB Cabela's Inc 146.0 820 BRY Berry Petroleum Co 185.1 820 SNX SYNNEX Corp 128.1 808 TSL Trina Solar Ltd 206.4 710 BCSI Blue Coat Systems Inc 106.2 673 NTG NATCO Group Inc 140.1 667 DIOD Diodes Inc 186.6 662 NGLS Targa Resources Partners LP 110.2 661 SVVS SAVVIS Inc 100.9 633 GPI Group 1 Automotive, Inc 156.7 618 MTH Meritage Homes Corp 100.4 604 TLEO Taleo Corp 176.1 581 APKT Acme Packet Inc 123.4 580 VIT VanceInfo Technologies Inc 221.0 579 ARST ArcSight Inc 164.9 574 DIN DineEquity Inc 211.7 535 OVTI OmniVision Technologies Inc 121.8 534 PBY Pep Boys-Manny Moe & Jack 176.9 527 HGG hhgregg Inc 107.2 519 TEN Tenneco Inc 308.4 507

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Now for the names in the small(er) cap category: $200M to <$500M; I've sorted these names from highest return to lowest.

Symbol Company Name % Price Mkt Cap VNDA Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc 2,244.2 325 DTG Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group 1,201.0 293 ISLE Isle of Capri Casinos Inc 370.4 429 KIRK Kirklands Inc 360.5 234 KONG KongZhong Corp 239.9 394 FUQI Fuqi International Inc 222.8 435 SAH Sonic Automotive Inc 195.9 405 COMV Comverge Inc 187.2 282 MXWL Maxwell Technologies Inc 185.9 348 SPAR Spartan Motors Inc 154.3 371 FIRE Sourcefire Inc 150.3 333 CLMS Calamos Asset Management Inc 149.6 278 ABG Asbury Automotive Group Inc 148.1 353 DM Dolan Media Co 137.9 393 LXU LSB Industries Inc 127.1 343 BGFV Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp 120.7 236 TNS TNS Inc 117.2 473 ORN Orion Marine Group Inc 114.4 428 SFLY Shutterfly Inc 112.0 364 MYRG MYR Group Inc (Delaware) 110.2 414 SAIA Saia Inc 109.3 252 CHIC Charlotte Russe Holding Inc 108.0 267 CSIQ Canadian Solar Inc 104.6 444

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