4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Linear Tech

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 135,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, chip maker Linear Technologies (Nasdaq: LLTC  ) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Linear Tech facts

Headquarters (founded)	Milpitas, Calif. (1981)
Market Cap	$5.26 billion
Industry	Semiconductors
TTM Revenue	$1.07 billion
Management	CEO Lothar Maier (since 2005) CFO Paul Coghlan (since 1986)
Return on Capital (average, last three years)	20.3%
Dividend Yield	3.7%
Competitors	Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN  ) Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI  )
CAPS members bullish on LLTC also bullish on	Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL  ) Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ  )
CAPS members bearish on LLTC also bearish on	Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN  ) JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM  )

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

Over on CAPS, 649 of the 675 members who have rated Linear Tech -- or 96% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include FoolishDiver and All-Star reeshau.

Last month, FoolishDiver listed several of the stock's bullish qualities: "Excellent margins, aggressive cost cutting by management, increasing dividend, bottoming of economy and corresponding inventory reductions by customers leading to higher demand."

In a pitch from April, reeshau expands on that:

Although Linear suffers from cyclical business effects, its products are very different from the commodity-level flash memory chips. Analog chip makers are often bunched with the rest of the semiconductor industry, but they are a smaller, defensible niche. Linear has one of the best positions in this niche, with high [return on invested capital] and margins.

What do you think about Linear Tech, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.