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Friday, November 06, 2009
Brian D. Pacampara :: Townhall.com Columnist
Thursday's Biggest Stock Stars
by Brian D. Pacampara
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Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


Hey there, Fools. I've summoned our Motley Fool CAPScommunity once again to highlight a few of Thursday's biggest winners among the stocks with top ratingsof four or five stars:

Company

Yesterday's Gain

IMS Health (NYSE: RX)

23.32%

Allied Irish Banks

10.58%

American Capital (Nasdaq: ACAS)

8.63%

Mechel (NYSE: MTL)

8.19%

Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM)

5.41%

There's a reason I selected those notable gainers, as opposed to other winners making noise on Thursday, like one-star stock AIG (NYSE: AIG): Stocks go up all the time, but unless you were able to predict the pop, what does it matter?  

Our community of more than 140,000 CAPS Fools considers its high-star stocks the most likely to outperform the market.

Written in the (five) stars?
For example, 93.6% of the 266 members who've rated Motley Fool Hidden Gems selection IMS Healthhave a bullish opinion of the stock. Less than two months ago , one of those Fools, KempInTheWoods, highlighted the health care data provider as a healthy turnaround bet:

Currently undervalued. Wide moat: information on drug sales from wide variety of sources. Pharma companies have temporarily cut back on IMS's services, but longer term will have to come back to them.

IMS is already up 41% since that call. Of course, more than halfof that gain came yesterday after a pair of investment funds, TPG Capital and CPP Investment Board, said they would acquire the company for $4 billion.

The bullish lesson?
Learn to think like a business owner, not a stock trader. All sorts of noise can depress a stock's price in the short term, but the true investor is able to focus on the factors that reallycount over time. By buying into well-positioned companies at bargain prices, you give yourself plenty of "upside" opportunities -- like being bought out by one of the big boys -- to earn an outsized return.

And now for the losers ...
Of course, winning isn't everything in the stock market.

Here are five of Thursday's biggest decliners with one- or two-star ratings:  

Company

Yesterday's Loss

Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI)

15.47%

Aeropostale

11.99% Continued...

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About The Author

Brian D. Pacampara is an investment expert and analyst for the Motley Fool.

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