4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Kraft

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 115,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, packaged-food giant Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) has earned a respected four-star ranking. While five-star stocks have been the best performers, our data has shown that four-star stocks still outshine the market by a significant margin and shouldn't be taken lightly; conversely, low-rated stocks have woefully lagged the market average.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Kraft's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Kraft facts

Headquarters (Founded)	Northfield, Illinois (2000 under its present incarnation)
Market Cap	$48.98 billion
Industry	Packaged Foods and Meats
TTM Revenue	$41 billion
Management	CEO Dr. Irene Rosenfeld CFO Timothy McLevish
Return on Equity (average last three years)	9.7%
Major Competitors	Unilever (NYSE: UN) General Mills (NYSE: GIS)
CAPS members bullish on KFT also bullish on	Altria Group (NYSE: MO) General Electric (NYSE: GE)
CAPS members bearish on KFT also bearish on	Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) General Motors (NYSE: GM)

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over on CAPS, fully 336 of 368 All-Star members who have rated Kraft -- some 91% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These All-Star bulls include my fellow Fool Andy Cross (a.k.a. TMFOpie) and Gtrinvestor, both of whom are ranked in the top 3% of our community.

In late March, TMFOpie noted that Kraft is "going through a reorg that will unlock a lot of brand value, and I expect management to continue using its prodigious cash flow to buy back stock, pay down debt (carefully) and pay its dividend. Long-term, cheap play."

An earlier pitch from Gtrinvestor in February follows that bullish logic, highlighting a few of the stock's cheap-ish metrics (which remain relatively unchanged):

Defensive stock that is the same price as it was 2 years ago (and 5 years ago for that matter). Clearly management needs to make some improvements here, but the stock only has a forward P/E of 14, which is not tremendously high for a defensive food company like Kraft. They also pay a nice 3.7% dividend, which ain't too shabby.

And to top it all off, Buffett just bought a huge chunk of this company, so you're hitching your train to a pretty decent investor, as well.

What do you think about Kraft, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 115,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.