Hitting fresh highs can either signal that a stock is on its way to greatness, or that it has run its course. Even with the risk of the latter, searching for these outperformers can reveal companies that are doing something right, much to their investors' delight.

I'm a poet and did not know it
With that in mind, we'll use the aggregate intelligence of the 110,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS to find stocks hitting 52-week highs today. The community's approval (represented by  four- and five-star ratings) could signal that further research is in order.

Here are three such stocks:

 Company

Today's High

Industry

CAPS Rating

Fools Saying Outperform

Research

Grey Wolf (NYSE:GW)

$9.65

Energy

*****

921 of 962

Research

UltraShort Financials ProShares (AMEX:SKF)

$211.75

Financial services

***

823 of 997

Research

General Mills (NYSE:GIS)

$64.00

Food & beverage

****

394 of 433

Research

Source: Motley Fool CAPS, as of July 15, 2008.

Five-star energy companies:

  • Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) -- up 39.9% in the past year.
  • El Paso Corp. (NYSE:EP) -- up 12% in the past year.

Five-star food & beverage companies:

  • AgFeed Industries (NASDAQ:FEED) -- up 84.5% in the past year.
  • Diageo (ADR) (NYSE:DEO) -- stock price is 18.5% cheaper than a year ago.

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