Many investors might have guessed that Aeropostale, Inc. (NYSE: ARO), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM), and The Talbots Inc. (NYSE: TLB) are among the worst performers.  Their performance has been atrocious, but the Finviz screener showed many companies which have performed far worse.

There are many companies under $100 million in value or which are illiquid which have fallen even more.  This group was focused on companies that trade with a market capitalization of more than $100 million and we screened out the companies which are either not liquid of roughly 200,000 shares a day.  We also screened out the Chinese companies and their accounting woes, with one exception.  This list of doozies here also had one critical threshold: the stocks are all down by 75% or more from the start of 2011.

American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC) has become the boulevard of broken dreams for investors.  The trouble goes even beyond alternative energy woes.  It is suing the Chinese customer who refused to pay, but the ongoing issue is that the customer was just too large of ASC’s customer base for it to adequately hedge against. At $5.22, the 52-week trading range is $5.10 to $38.88. That might make some people cry.  Shares are down more than 82% from the start of 2011 and the performance has been only red.  The market cap is still amazingly about $265 million and it usually trades more than 1.2 million shares each day.

Camelot Information Systems Inc. (NYSE: CIS) came public last year in October and investors probably wished they never heard of the enterprise application services and financial industry information technology services player in China.  A slowing bank spending climate hurt there even before Americans had to throw almost anything related to China in “the accounting soup” during this last summer and before.  Camelot trades close to $4.65 and the 52-week trading range is $4.00 to $28.18.  The stock is still worth more than $210 million and the shares are down right at 80% so far in 2011.  Camelot trades close to 800,000 shares a day.

Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) is a Bermuda-based shipper that transports crude in very large crude containers and it also transports coal and iron ore in vessels that its owns or leases.  Its business model is such that analysts expect losses in 2011 and in 2012.  It has slashed its dividend and shrunk the operation’s footprint.  Frontline trades at $6.02, its 52-week trading range is $5.72 to $29.47, and its market cap is $468 million.  Frontline also trades more than 2 million shares a day on average.  Unfortunately, this one is down about 76% year to date.

Motricity, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOTR) has technically fallen out of the $100 million market capitalization rate, but only since yesterday.  What is so sad here is that this was a mid-2010 IPO that rallied handily toward the end of 2010 when shares briefly hit $30.00.  That was then for the mobile ad solutions provider aimed at allowing ad agencies to better focus on the mobile market.   You hate to see a stock come public, ramp higher, and then fall to $2.00 the following year.  The company is expected to lose money this year and next year.  At $2.12, the 52-week trading range is $1.85 to $31.95, and its market cap is $96 million after a 4% drop on Monday.  The stock’s average volume is about 2 million shares per day.  This one leads the pack of post-IPO losers as it is down 89% year-to-date in 2011.

SemiLEDs Corporation (NASDAQ: LEDS) designs and manufactures light emitting diodes chips and components used in many lighting settings.  Unfortunately, the promise of growth in lighting efficiency peaked and 2011 has so far been a very rough year for this company and its peers as even the industry leaders have had many warnings on their revenues and earnings.  At $4.51, the 52-week trading range is $4.16 to $32.12.  It also trades about 200,000 shares per day and the market cap is roughly $123 million.  You could joke that SemiLEDS went dark in 2011 because the stock is down 84% year-to-date.

MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE: MTG) should be called “Black Magic” rather than “Magic” these days. With new mortgage applications so low and with the private mortgage insurance sales being so soft in home mortgage lending, what is there to love here?  The question is whether or not it can get to profitability before the business erodes out from under it.  That this used to be a $70 stock no longer matters as no one expects that to ever be the case again and finding any great prospects in this housing market is more than difficult.  Shares are now down to $2.36 after another 5% drop on Monday, but the 52-week trading range is $1.59 to $11.79.  MGIC still trades more than 7 million shares a day on average and the market capitalization is almost $475 million.  Shares are down more than 76% year-to-date.

Before you get too far down on stocks over poor performance, we have noted time after time that many value fund managers review the list of 52-week lows as one of the first tasks in their value screens.  Not all losing stocks die, but finding value in highly troubled businesses is often more than challenging.  As you have guessed, none of these stocks fit in as value stocks as they have underlying trouble in their businesses.  Sometimes “cheap stocks” are not really cheap.

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The company reported earnings of -$0.75 EPS on a near 10% drop in revenues to $367 million.  Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.13 EPS and $351.6 million in revenues.  The net loss came to $151.7 million for the quarter versus net income of $24.6 million in the same quarter a year ago; new insurance written in Q2 was $3.1 billion versus $2.7 billion a year earlier.

MGIC did note, “the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) accounted for $583.1 million of insurance that is not included in the new insurance written total for the quarter due to these transactions being treated as a modification of the coverage on existing insurance in force.”

The banks and credit card companies might be reporting that delinquencies and charge-offs continue to improve, but it turns out that if you need to carry mortgage insurance it seems you really have to have mortgage insurance.  The company’s June 30 delinquent loan rate, outside of its bulk loans, was 13.4%.  The good news is that was nearly 15% delinquent at the end of 2010 and a year ago.  If you tally in the bulk loans then the June 30 rate is 15.80% delinquent versus an average of about 17.5% at the end of 2010 and a year ago.

Losses incurred during the second quarter were $459.6 million versus $320.1 million in the same quarter a year ago, “due to new notices exceeding cures.”  MGIC also said that its net quarterly underwriting and other expenses were $54.0 million versus $54.1 million a year earlier.

When a company has delinquency rates this high, how can it possibly make money?  Even with the improvements seen it could be many quarters out before profits are seen again.

We already saw the banks trade at a discount to book value, and they are profitable.  MGIC listed its book value per shares at $7.52 as of June 30.  That figure was $8.33 per share one quarter back and $9.84 a year ago.

MGIC shares closed at $6.00 on Friday and shares just opened down about 9% at $5.47 this morning.  At 9:36 AM EST we have shares at $5.50 and the 52-week trading range is $5.41 to $11.79.

PMI Group Inc. (NYSE: PMI) is down 6.3% at $1.19 in sympathy against a 52-week range of $1.01 to $4.68.  MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) may have rallied on reports of a BofA settlement last week, but its shares are down 3.2% at $9.87 this morning.

JON C. OGG

The good news is that the loss was narrower, but it still came to a whopping $186.7 million for the quarter, versus a loss of $280.1 million, or  -$2.25 EPS, a year earlier.  Total revenues for the fourth quarter were down almost 10% to $361.1 million, compared to $405.5 million versus a year earlier. Net quarterly premiums written were $271.4 million versus $286.9 million a year earlier.  Net premiums written for the full year 2010 were $1.102 billion, down from $1.243 billion for all of 2009.

The company did note something interesting here considering the state of the black holes that exist in mortgage insurers for the years ahead. The fair value of its investment portfolio, cash and cash equivalents was $8.8 billion at December 31, 2010, higher than the $8.4 billion at December 31, 2009 and higher than the $8.1 billion at December 31, 2008.

The percentage of loans that were delinquent outside of bulk loans was 14.94% versus 15.46% at the end of 2009 and versus 9.51% at the end of 2008 before the floodgates of foreclosures opened wide.  Including bulk loans, those figures were 17.48% versus 18.41% in 2009 and 12.37% in 2008.

PMI Group Inc. (NYSE: PMI) shares are now down 10% at $3.60 against a 52-week range of $2.11 to $7.75; Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN) shares are down 10% at $8.55 against a 52-week range of $4.99 to $18.68.

Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE: GNW) is more diversified, but it offers mortgage insurance as well.  Genworth shares are  down 3.5% at $13.66 against a 52-week range of $10.26 to $19.36.

MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) shares are really hit hard today as the stock is down almost 15% at $9.89 against a 52-week range of $5.78 to $13.80.

Investing in mortgage insurers and other financial companies in sectors where losses are certain based on book value alone is not generally a smart move.  For what it is worth, MGIC’s book value was listed as $8.33 per share at December 31, 2010, down from $10.41 at the end of 2009 and down from $19.46 at the end of 2008.

Does it seem right that investors would still want to pay a premium to book value to own a mortgage insurer which is almost assured to have losses ahead?  Unless there is a V-shaped recovery for insuring mortgages ahead, we think not.

JON C. OGG

MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) rose 16% to $13.00 today.  Of the insurers, it is considered one of the survivors or one of the less-weak.  Shares rose yesterday as well, but the stock was under $10.50 briefly this week.

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABK) is still a company that is at-risk and its future is still uncertain.  The amazing part of the mortgage foreclosure cessation is that this all give Ambac that much more legal strength in the suits against banks showing that documentation was error-ridden all throughout the mortgage industry.  Shares rose 18% to $0.95 today and the after-hours session has it even higher.  The tally including trading after the close is now more than 57 million shares. Shares rose yesterday as well, but the stock had traded under $0.75 earlier in the week.

Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN) shares rose 6.8% to $9.01 today on about 150% of normal volume after more than 10 million shares traded hands.  The highs today traded above the $9.00 prints from earlier in the week.

MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) was up the least today of the group.  Shares were up nearly 5% at $10.51 on more than 9.2 million shares.

Bank of America closed down 5% at $12.60 on about 500 million shares today.  It also saw more than 447,000 contracts trade in the put options versus over 303,000 call options.

JON C. OGG

The company had recently raised $1 billion in a securities sale and sees the rate of home loan delinquencies easing.  The company’s portfolio had total delinquent loans down over 5% from last quarter to 228,455 mortgages.

The company also noted that its new notices fell to 48,181 loans from 53,393 just one quarter ago.  That compares to a peak of 68,912 more than a year ago.

The company is not exactly back on a growth path if you look at revenues.  Total revenues for the quarter were $406.4 million versus $454.5 million a year ago; and net premiums written for the quarter were $295.3 million versus $330.4 million for the same period a year ago.  New insurance written in the quarter was $2.7 billion versus $5.9 billion in the second quarter of 2009.  The company noted that the Home Affordable Refinance Program accounted for $639 million of insurance that is not included in the new insurance written total for the quarter due to these transactions being treated as a modification of the coverage on existing insurance in force.  MGIC’s primary insurance in force as of June 30 was $202.4 billion, down from $212.2 billion at the end of 2009 and down from $220.1 billion a year ago.

This is a story of managing losses rather than revenue growth.  Losses incurred in the quarter were $320.1 million, which is down from $769.6 million reported for the same second quarter of 2009.  MGIC attributed this primarily due to a decrease in the default inventory.

MGIC Investment shares are trading up 2.8% at $8.04 on almost 850,000 shares in the pre-market activity.  Shares have already come off their highs so far as the stock was trading up almost 5% at $8.20 on over 300,000 shares as of about 8:40 AM EST.

PMI Group Inc. (NYSE: PMI) is trading up 1.25% at $3.24 on close to 900,000 shares before the opening bell.  Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN) is up 1% at $7.68 on over 100,000 shares before the opening bell.

JON C. OGG

Atheros Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHR) beat expectations on the surface, but the drop here appears to be tied to weaker PC-related revenues.  There have been under 100,000 shares traded so far, but the stock is trading down 6.75% at $28.40 versus a 52-week range of $21.77 to $43.90 and a close yesterday of $30.46.

Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) is lower after a 118% gain in revenue to $81.9 million slightly beat Thomson Reuters estimates; Revenue guidance was put at $98 to $106 million, above estimates of $86+ million.  As this is a seller of chips for iPad and iPhone, this wasn’t good enough.  Shares are down 5.7% at $16.48 on over 350,000 shares.  The 52-week range is $4.44 to $18.85.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) is trading lower by 3% at $141.20 on about 1 million shares after the investment banking giant posted lower income.  Keep in mind that there is already talk that the earnings may have been sand-bagged.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was light on the top-line and its raised guidance for 2010 was slightly under consensus.  Shares are down almost 5% at $123.80 on almost 100,000 shares.

MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE: MTG) is up this morning after a surprise profit after what may have been 3 years worth of losses.  Shares are trading up almost 5% at $8.20 on over 300,000 shares.  Its 52-week range is $3.72 – $13.80.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) must really need a new CEO to lead the company after all of its troubles.  Rumors and reports of a new CEO search have shares up 2.5% at $9.04 on almost 700,000 shares.

SandRidge Energy, Inc. (NYSE: SD) is showing an unexpected rop for a day-two indication now that it has closed on its Arena Resources buyout.  While on thin volume, we show shares down 2% at $6.30 in the pre-market trading.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) is getting slapped after meeting expectations.  Shares are down 5.7% at $24.10 on about 140,000 shares.

Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE: TUP) is getting hit hard after its Q2 earnings miss.  Shares are down 11.25% at $38.40 on only about 25,000 shares.  Traders may want to watch shares of Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE: NWL) for any downward sympathy, although no shares of Newell have yet traded this morning.

Zions Bancorp. (NASDAQ: ZION) is getting clipped after an unexpected wider loss.  Shares are down 8.4% at $19.62 on about 200,000 shares.

JON C. OGG

Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) Reiterated Buy but added to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) Raised to Neutral at HSBC.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) technical price target issued at $320 to $230 at INO (short affiliate audio-video).
Array Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARRY) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) Started as Neutral at Susquehanna.
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) Raised to Buy from Underperform at Jefferies; Raised to Perform at Oppenheimer.
EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) Maintained Buy but removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: HOV) Cut to Sell at UBS.
MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE: MTG) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) Maintained Sell with $31 target at Auriga.
Simon Property Group Inc. (NYSE: SPG) Started as Hold at Jefferies.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Twitter has, by most estimates, 75 million visitors a month, which makes it one of the largest social networks in the world. All major media companies are on Twitter and some have more than one million Twitter users.

24/7 Wall St. will look at the Twitter posts at Reuters Biz, WSJ, Financial Times, CNN Money, MarketWatch, CNBC, and 24/7 Wall St. each day to see which stocks are most frequently mentioned. It is clear that in this area of social media these tweet are a sign of which companies the Twitter universe is interested in. These financial sites are followed by a combined 625,000 Twitter users which makes them a sizeable sample of Wall St.’s interests. In some cases, we will publish the actual tweets from the sites.

Among the daily top trending  symbols on stock twitter aggregator StockTwits are ARCA biopharma (ABIO), Palm (PALM), First Solar (FSLR), MGIC (MTG), PolyOne (POL), China Agritech (CAGC), A-Power Energy (APWR), and CostCo. (COST)

Reuters Biz: Antisoma, Novartis lung cancer drug fails in study http://link.reuters.com/cam65j

Reuters Biz: Best Buy eyes May UK launch; Carphone demerger http://link.reuters.com/wuk65j

FT: Geely seals deal to buy Volvo from Ford: Ford Motor signed a $1.8bn deal to sell its Volvo brand to Geely on Sunda… http://bit.ly/9HWACG

CNBC: #IPhone App to Sidestep AT&T -> http://bit.ly/bH8TDh #wireless #app

CNN Money: How a big bet on oil went bust http://bit.ly/boikYC

Rio Tinto’s Stern Hu reportedly sentenced to 10 years in prison by Chinese court http://on.mktw.net/bKSqxc

Douglas A. McIntyre

Pall Corporation (PLL) Profit falls 19%. Drops to $18.20 from 52-week high of $43.19.

Gibraltar (ROCK)  Goldman Sachs says company could breach loan covenants. Sells off to $3.59 from 52-week high of $24.63.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Johnson Controls (JCI)  Moody’s downgrade. Off to $8.35 from 52-week high of $36.49.

Comtech Telecommunications (CMTL)- Ugly earnings. Drops to $19.56 from 52-week high of $51.21

Douglas A. McIntyre