5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Spectra Energy

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 110,000 investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, natural gas company Spectra Energy (NYSE: SE) (a spin-off from Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK)) has earned a coveted five-star ranking. Our data has shown that five-star stocks outperform the market by a significant margin; conversely, one-star stocks have woefully lagged the market average.

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

Spectra Energy Stats:

Headquarters	Houston, Texas (spun off, January 2007)
Market cap	$17.74 billion
Industry	Oil & gas pipelines
TTM revenue	$4.95 billion
Management	CEO Fred Fowler CFO Gregory Ebel
TTM return on equity	17.1%
CAPS players bullish on SE also bullish on	Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) Duke Energy Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)
CAPS players bearish on SE also bearish on	The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) Smurfit-Stone Container (Nasdaq: SSCC) Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN)

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

Over on CAPS, fully 204 of 207 of the All-Star players who have rated Spectra Energy -- some 98% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These All-Star bulls include breaktrack and jawong1032, both of whom are ranked in the top 10% of our community.

In March 2007, breaktrack highlighted Spectra as a special situation, writing:

This is a Duke Energy spinoff with many people from Duke going over to SE. They bring along much knowledge and expertise. Duke was always a good stock since I owned it and I expect the same from SE.

A pitch from jawong1032 later on in the month focused on the steady, cash-generating nature of Spectra's business model:

A natural gas play that is not levered to the price of natural gas. [Spectra Energy] stores and transports gas, and gets paid to do it whether the price of natural gas is $1.00 or $10.00. Natural gas usage is and will be on the rise. Watch for the company to seek additional storage capacity which in turn will generate more cash for the company. A nice dividend will help ease the waiting period.

What do you think about Spectra Energy, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 110,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.