Sadly, there's no such thing as an ultimate buy signal when it comes to investing in stocks. Identifying companies with the wind at their back takes time, patience, and a good dose of due diligence.

There is, however, an easy way to increase your odds of finding the stocks that will beat the market. At Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's investing community of more than 115,000 members, we've found that five-star stocks, as a group, substantially outperform the broader market -- to the tune of 12 percentage points on an annualized basis from November 2006 to July 2008.

In order to fully capture the upside potential of those five-star stocks, it makes sense to identify them just as soon as they achieve five-star status. Fortunately, our CAPS screener now makes it possible to do this. Below, for example, is a list of companies that have been upgraded to five-star status from four stars just one month ago. These stock ideas are only a starting point, of course. Be sure to join us on CAPS to dig in even further.

Company

All-Stars Saying Outperform

Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:ARW)

106 of 115

USEC, Inc. (NYSE:USU)

1042 of 1090

Alliant Techsystems, Inc. (NYSE:ATK)

229 of 239

Aflac, Inc. (NYSE:AFL)

908 of 950

C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR)

121 of 126

LSB Industries, Inc. (AMEX:LXU)

540 of 556

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

3642 of 3781

Data from Motley Fool CAPS as of Aug. 26, 2008.

Come join us on CAPS, absolutely free, to learn more about these and countless other interesting stock ideas.