5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Diana Shipping

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 115,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, drybulk shipper Diana Shipping (NYSE: DSX) 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 Diana Shipping's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Diana Shipping facts

Headquarters (Founded)	Athens, Greece (1999)
Market Cap	$2.14 billion
Industry	Shipping
TTM Revenue	$273.62 million
Management	CEO Simeon Palios (since 2005) CFO Andreas Michalopoulos (since 2006)
Return on Equity (avg. last three yrs.)	22%
Major Competitors	DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS), Navios Maritime Holdings (NYSE: NM)
CAPS members bullish on DSX also bullish on	Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)
CAPS members bearish on DSX also bearish on	Excel Maritime Carriers (NYSE: EXM), Citigroup (NYSE: C)

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

Over on CAPS, fully 454 of 471 of the All-Star members who have rated Diana Shipping -- some 96% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These All-Star bulls include FortuneHunter6 and Gedunken, both of whom are ranked in the top 15% of our community.

Three weeks ago, FortuneHunter6 noted that Diana Shipping is "a Good dry bulker. Long term charters and most if not all of the ships are leased a majority of the time. As long as China, India and the U.S. need materials from abroad this company should do well. It also pays a fat dividend."

An earlier pitch from Gedunken in March follows that bullish line of thinking, elaborating on Diana's downturn-defending business model:

Almost all of Diana Shipping's fleet are on time charters which guarantees a certain income from each ship. These contracts generally last for years and Diana has been very good about rolling over ships from one contract to another and even making arrangements for contracts for new ships while they are still being built.

They aren't a speculator in the spot market like many other shipping companies and their long term contracts should enable them to weather even a significant downturn in the spot market rates.

What do you think about Diana Shipping, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 115,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.