Stocks That Have Risen From The Dead

As investors ready themselves for Halloween, images of the macabre are  hard to escape.   The stock market also is filled with death metaphors.  Companies SLASH costs and stocks are PUMMELED by bad news.  Meanwhile, VULTURE investors feast on the flesh of dead and dying companies.

Occasionally, investors are able to find bargains among companies that everyone has given up for dead.   Sometimes they get lucky.  Sometimes they outsmart everybody else.  Whatever the reason, their powers would make Dr. Frankenstein proud.

Here are some recent examples of the phenomena.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) — The internet retailer was seen by many on Wall Street as a low-margin business headed nowhere with oodles of competition from larger players.  CEO Jeff Bezos ignored that advice and began marketing the Kindle and the rest is history.  Shares of the Seattle-based company fetched about $33 in 2000.  They now fetch more than $159 and have increased 16.5 percent this year..

Citigroup (NYSE: C) —  Remember when the bank was given up for dead? CEO Vikram Pandit was due to be fired in the dark days of the recession.  The shares traded at 97 cents on March 5, 2009.  By December, the New York-based firm repaid the $20 billion in federal aid.  Pandit is still on the job and the shares are trading at $4.14.  The stock is nowhere near its earlier glory but it’s up 25 percent this year.

Ford (NYSE: F) — The automaker seemed headed toward oblivion before CEO Alan Mullaly’s turnaround.   He foresaw the sharp decline in auto sales and in 2006 borrowed$23.6 billion by mortgaging all of Ford’s assets.  Ford is the only automaker in the U.S.  that did not need a bailout.  Shares traded at around $3.40 in 2008 and are now priced at $13.39.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) — For years, the company could no right.   Pundits said that CEO Mel Karmazin paid shock jock Howard Stern too much and would never get the merger with XM approved.  Of course, the decline in auto sales was supposed to be the nail in the coffin. None of that happened.   Sirius is less dependent on Stern.  S&P analyst Tuna Amobi says Sirius will probably add 1.1 million subscribers this year to the 18.8 million it had at the end of 2009 and may add 1.4 million in 2011, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Its 52-week low is 52 cents.   Shares are now trading at $1.27, a gain of 111 percent this year

Vonage (NYSE: VG)  — Vonage was supposedly headed to the scrap heap after its disastrous IPO in 2006.  Jim Cramer was especially critical, repeatedly calling the VOIP provider a “dog.”   Every pundit argued that larger rivals would destroy the Internet phone pioneer.     Well, the company is still standing.  Shares are up more than 79 percent this year.  Its 52-week is $1.13.  The stock now trades at $2.52.

–Jonathan Berr