Wall Street's Wish List

"Actions speak louder than words."

It's an old saying, with more than a grain of truth to it, I'll warrant. So why is it that when the Wall Street firms merely "initiate coverage" or "upgrade" their ratings on a company, that gets all the news coverage? After all, those are only words, when what really matters is how the big boys act. Luckily for Wall Street watchers, finding out which professionals put their money where their corporate mouthpieces are has become relatively easy in this Internet age of ours. All we have to do is read MSN Money's list of which companies the Street is most actively buying.

But once we've done that, what next? After all, "Monkey see, monkey do" may not make for the soundest of investment strategies. That's where Motley Fool CAPS can help. The Fool's newest venture into the realm of collective intelligence collects ratings from more than 30,000 lay and professional analysts, then overweights the most successful raters' opinions to come up with a "CAPS rating" from one to five stars (five being the best). If Wall Street's buying and the smartest investors in Fooldom say they're right to do so, then that should get your attention.

And so, let's meet today's list of contenders:

Wall Street vs. Main Street
Wall Street's hottest picks get only a lukewarm reception on Main Street this week, with just one of Wall Street's fave picks rated above average, and everyone else deemed average or below. The sole winner in the CAPS popularity race: Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation and website data cruncher Omniture.

Doubtless benefiting from buyout speculation after Oracle's (NASDAQ:ORCL) purchase of Hyperion and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) bid for aQuantive (NASDAQ:AQNT), shares of Omniture, a similar business, have more than doubled in price since Fool co-founder David Gardner picked the stock for our portfolio in December 2006. But has the speculation already priced the chance of a buyout into the stock, or does it have more room to run? Let's poll our best CAPS players -- the CAPS All-Stars -- and find out.

The bull case for Omniture

• WSMOOT19 sees a future in Omniture based on the firm's "77% revenue growth." Meanwhile, profit growth is expected to reach triple digits next year, and to average 37% per year for the next five years. With numbers like these, who needs a buyout?
• KempInTheWoods argues: "The job of tracking and optimizing user experience in commercial websites seems to me like a long-term growth area -- and although OMTR has not turned a profit yet, prospects are good, management is invested and engaged."
• tcgfund calls Omniture "a solid business with a huge client list. If they focus on retaining their existing customers and developing serious relationships with them, which it seems as though they have, they hold huge promise for the future. They are providing [a] service that major web-based companies can't live without. The CEO is young, smart, and aggressive. Their website is extremely well done, and clearly caters to organizations with a lot of dough to spend. I see this company gaining serious ground in the next two years, and I expect the stock price to go with it."

While not specifically addressing the risk that Omniture has become fully priced or overpriced, our CAPS All-Stars seem pretty sure the company has a bright future, whether solo or as part of a larger enterprise. On the question of which way the story might play out, read fellow Fool Rick Munarriz's column, "Snipping at Those Coattails," for a more detailed look at buyout prospects.

Time to chime in
Once you've done that, come on over to CAPS and tell us what you think. Do 37% profits growth justify a 71 forward P/E? Have Omniture's growth prospects been fully (or more than fully) priced into the stock already? And if that's the case, will a buyout save the day? On CAPS, you play the expert, and we, the pundits, are your audience.

Motley Fool CAPS: It's fun, it's free, and it just might make you famous.

Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. You can find him on CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handle TMFDitty, where he's ranked No. 790 out of more than 31,000 rated investors. TASER is a Rule Breakers recommendation and Microsoft is an Inside Value selection. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.