When a stock hits a fresh high, it can mean that it’s 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.

Let’s dig deeper
With that in mind, we'll use the aggregate intelligence of the 115,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS to find stocks hitting 52-week highs yesterday. The community's approval (signified by four- and five-star ratings) could be a sign that further research is in order.

Here are three such stocks:

Company

Yesterday’s Adjusted Close

Industry

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

Fools Saying Outperform

Quality Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:QSII)

$42.84

Healthcare Information Services

5 Stars

2026 of 2083

Nicor, Inc. (NYSE:GAS)

$45.39

Gas Utilities

4 Stars

114 of 128

Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED)

$8.71

Specialty Retail, Other

2 Stars

109 of 133

Source: Motley Fool CAPS, as of Aug. 27, 2008.

Five-star health-care information services companies:

  • HLTH Corp (NASDAQ:HLTH): Stock price is 11% less than last year.

Five-star gas utilities companies:

  • TransCanada Corp (USA) (NYSE:TRP): Stock price is 13% higher than last year.
  • Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE): Stock price is 9% higher than last year.

Join us on CAPS to learn more about these and countless other interesting stock ideas.