Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, oil and gas giant Chevron (NYSE: CVX) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Chevron facts

Headquarters (Founded) San Ramon, Calif. (1879)
Market Cap $206.3 billion
Industry Integrated oil and gas
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $216.9 billion
Management

Chairman/CEO John Watson

CFO Patricia Yarrington
Return on Capital (Average, Past 3 Years) 15%
Cash/Debt $16.9 billion / $11.6 billion
Dividend Yield 3%
Competitors

BP (NYSE: BP)

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP)

ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM)

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

On CAPS, 96% of the 3,827 members who have rated Chevron believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include mtownsend079 and Seansonfire.

Just last month , mtownsend079 tapped Chevron as a solid bargain opportunity: "Undervalue company with great exposure to the price of oil which is going to increase this next year. Nice dividend to hedge your bet too!"

Chevron even sports a three-year average net income margin of 9.6%. That's higher than that of rivals BP (3.3%) and Exxon (9%), let alone Conoco's average margin of negative 1.3%.

CAPS member Seansonfire elaborates on the bull case:

Chevron (CVX) is by far the top play in the oil majors space over the next 5 years. It has several major projects in the pipeline including both Natural Gas and Oil projects. It is also the largest Oil Driller by Rig count in the Gulf of Mexico, which I put a premium on especially right now due to the middle east crissis that keeps spreading.

Chevron corporate strategy over the last 5 years has been to move its assets upstream into Exploration and Production and away from downstream activities including refining. I think this strategy will serve them well as the price of oil will continue to creep up which will benefit those that have already put in the capital costs now at a lower real dollar value then in the future.

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