5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Unilever

• Email
• Share
• Print

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 140,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, consumer-staples giant Unilever (NYSE: UL) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

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

Unilever facts

Headquarters (Founded)	London (1885)
Market Cap	$88.6 billion
Industry	Processed and packaged goods
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$58.95 billion
Management	CEO Paul Polman (since 2008) CFO James Lawrence (since 2007)
Major Brands	Food: Becel, Hellman's, Lipton Personal: Axe, Dove, Vaseline Home: Comfort, Sunlight, Surf
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years)	33.8%
Cash/Debt	$3.95 billion / $14.78 billion
Dividend Yield	2.6%
Competitors	Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL)
CAPS Members Bullish on UL Also Bullish on	Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) General Electric (NYSE: GE)
CAPS Members Bearish on UL Also Bearish on	Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 96% of the 693 members who have rated Unilever believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include mehulmvora and MizzouFanVan.

Earlier this year, mehulmvora tapped Unilever as a simple bet on international growth: "With expanding overseas market and a good management of product portfolio, Unilever is poised to benefit from any recovery in consumer confidence globally."

In a pitch from late last month, MizzouFanVan singled out the stock as a stable foreign income opportunity:

This is an international play -- a strong, solid consumer goods company. As the U.S. and everyone else slowly crawls out of the recession pit, this sector is going to benefit. And you don't get a more solid company (P&G is good, but based in U.S. dollars is kind of shaky right now). Company pays a dividend, too, which means they also respect their investor's ability to reinvest profits.

What do you think about Unilever, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. The CAPS community is waiting to hear your opinions. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!