Based on the aggregated intelligence of 110,000 investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, railroad operator Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) 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 Canadian National's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

CN facts

Headquarters (Founded) Montreal, Canada (1922)

Market Cap

$21.6 billion

Industry

Railroads

TTM Revenue

$7.7 billion

Management

CEO Hunter Harrison (since 2003)
CFO Claude Mongeau (since 2000)

Return on Equity (avg. last three years)

20.2%

CAPS players bullish on CNI also bullish on

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)
Vale (NYSE:RIO)
General Electric (NYSE:GE)

CAPS players bearish on CNI also bearish on

Citigroup (NYSE:C)
Boeing (NYSE:BA)
ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM)

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

Over on CAPS, 320 of the 322 All-Star players who have rated CN -- some 99% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These All-Star bulls include tgillespie and rvh95rvh95, both of whom are ranked in the top 10% of our community.

In summer 2006, tgillespie wrote that CN "is a seasoned, well-run railway covering the breadth of Canada and the MidWest and South of the USA... The company has not over-expanded, is well entrenched in its territory and should continue to do well for decades."

And according to a more recent pitch from rvh95rvh95 in late March, CN looks just as attractive from a top-down perspective:

In a nutshell, we are a global world now more than ever and more and more goods are being shipped long distances. When the price of oil climbs, it's less profitable to ship by truck and more freight goes by rail... In Canada, [CN] and [Canadian Pacific Railway] are the whole game... You're not going to see the stock double in short time, but it's my bet that this old industry will see a growth surge over the next 2 decades.

What do you think about Canadian National, 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.