4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Cognizant Technology

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 140,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, IT consulting company Cognizant Technology Solutions (Nasdaq: CTSH) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Cognizant Technology facts

Headquarters (Founded)	Teaneck, N.J. (1998)
Market Cap	$10.1 billion
Industry	IT consulting and other services
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$3.01 billion
Management	CEO Francisco D'Souza (since 2007) CFO/COO Gordon Coburn (since 2007)
Compound Annual Revenue and Net Income Growth (Over Past Five Years)	45.3% and 44.1%
Cash / Debt	$983.2 million / $0
Dividend Yield	0%
Competitors	IBM (NYSE: IBM) Infosys (Nasdaq: INFY) Accenture (NYSE: ACN)
CAPS Members Bullish on CTSH Also Bullish on	Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)
CAPS Members Bearish on CTSH Also Bearish on	Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM)

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

On CAPS, 97% of the 947 members who have rated Cognizant believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include lesterkiwi2 and All-Star wbinv2100, who is ranked in the top 10% of our community.

A few months ago, lesterkiwi2 reminded Fools that Cognizant "is a leader in the IT industry." Our CAPS member continues: "It has zero long term debt, excellent growth (including, so far during the recession) and has outstanding management."

In a pitch from last month, wbinv2100 was also cognizant of Cognizant's impressive figures:

IT consulting is a high profit margin business, and the global market is gigantic. [Cognizant] is at the center of all of this. … Its largest customers, financial institutions, coming back to life only to add to the potential profits. The numbers are beautiful -- 20% ROE for the last ten years, 50% Avg Annual Sales & Profit Growth. PE is currently at 22 ... with PE averaging 30 over the past 10 years. With profit growth and a richer valuation by the market this stock could be at $50 a share by the end of 2010.

What do you think about Cognizant, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. The CAPS community is waiting to hear your opinions. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!