5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: McDermott

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 130,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, engineering and construction company McDermott International (NYSE: MDR  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.  

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at McDermott's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

McDermott facts

Headquarters (founded)	Houston (1923)
Market Cap	$3.99 billion
Industry	Heavy Construction
Business Segments	Offshore Oil and Gas Construction Government Operations Power Generation Systems
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$6.57 billion
Management	CEO John Fees (since 2008) CFO Michael Taff (since 2007)
Return on Capital (average, last three years)	41.2%
Competitors	Foster Wheeler (Nasdaq: FWLT  ) , Fluor (NYSE: FLR  )
CAPS members bullish on MDR also bullish on	Transocean (NYSE: RIG  ) , Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX  )
CAPS members bearish on MDR also bearish on	First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR  ) , PotashCorp (NYSE: POT  )

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's), and Motley Fool CAPS.

Over on CAPS, 418 of the 424 members who have rated McDermott -- or 98.6% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include directd and TSIF, both of whom are ranked in the top 2% of our community.

In February, directd tapped McDermott as a solid way to get in on government spending sprees:

Global stimulus packages amounting to trillions of dollars much of which will be spent on infrastructure and energy will benefit this industry overall. … I expect projects and backlogs to go up as massive gov. stimulus efforts and a slow economic recovery appear far more likely than the Armageddon the alarmists are speaking of.

In a pitch from three days ago, TSIF brought some interesting buyout buzz to our community's attention:

Decent P/E, P/B, and minimal debt. Margins are sub 8%, but ROE is a respectable 34%. Quarterly growth was weak, but McDermott is well positioned with the infrastructure plays in progress. Toss in a bonus that there are substantial rumors that McDermott is in talks to be acquired by [PetroChina] and you have an interesting play. If you consider that China has tremendous growth potential in ALL three of McDermott's sectors then you can see that this may be more than a rumor, but if not McDermott is still a strong long play.

What do you think about McDermott, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 130,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.