Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, biotech giant Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

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

Gilead facts

Headquarters (Founded)

Foster City, Calif. (1987)

Market Cap

$31.26 billion

Industry

Biotechnology

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$7.95 billion

Management

Chairman/CEO John Martin

CFO Robin Washington

Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years)

47.5%

Cash/Debt

$5.32 billion / $3.01 billion

Competitors

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY)

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK)

Novartis (NYSE: NVS)

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

On CAPS, 97% of the 2,235 members who have rated Gilead believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include deraj83 and CarolinaMatt.

Late last year, deraj83 listed several of the stock's positives:

Gilead Sciences, with its HIV drug franchise and solid pipeline of drugs in clinical trials, is a top biopharmaceutical company. It has terrific fundamentals, including little debt and strong free cash flow. Earnings growth, which has been rapid, is expected to continue...

In fact, over the next five years, Gilead is expected to grow its bottom line at a pace of 15% annually. That's faster than listed competitors like Bristol-Myers (0.5%), GlaxoSmithKline (4.3%), and Novartis (4.7%).

CAPS member CarolinaMatt elaborates on the bull case:

Yes I get it. This company is no longer the high-flying early-stage pharma star with a everything under patent and profits growing as fast as it can ramp distribution.

But this is no old super-slow moving huge pharma company (i.e. Pfizer) either. Pricing is at a 2011 PE of about 9X which suggests maturity and minimal EPS growth. But this company is still projected to grow EPS at 15ish% over the next 3-5 years. Even if they fall short and come in at more like 10-11% EPS gains it is a bargain in the drug space.

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