Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, video services specialist Harmonic (Nasdaq: HLIT) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

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

Harmonic facts

Headquarters (Founded) Sunnyvale, Calif. (1988)
Market Cap $546.1 million
Industry Communications equipment
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $509.8 million
Management CEO Patrick Harshman (since 2006)
CFO Carolyn Aver (since 2010)
Return on Capital (Average, Past 3 Years) 2.1%
Cash/Debt $134.3 million / $0
Competitors Arris Group (Nasdaq: ARRS)
Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO)
Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI)

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

On CAPS, 95% of the 320 members who have rated Harmonic believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include All-Stars FAOFool and fellow Fool Sean Williams (TMFUltraLong), both of whom are ranked in the top 10% of our community.

A few months ago, FAOFool nicely summed up the Harmonic bull case: "Solid financials and good play on technology demographics. Also, with increased competition, will become a buyout option for larger firms."

Over the next five years, in fact, Harmonic is expected to grow its bottom line at a solid rate of 15% annually. That's faster than rivals like Arris (10%), Cisco (10%), and Motorola Solutions (10.5%).

Last month, Sean expanded on the Harmonic outperform argument:

I remember the good old days when I was buying and selling this company a decade ago at nearly $100 per share ... oh how times have changed. What hasn't changed is Harmonic's trading range which seems to vary between the low $5's and the $8-$10 range. This is simply a case of playing the perpetual channel. The great thing is the company can back up its valuation. [Having traded] at 1.14 times book value, roughly 10 times forward earnings ... there's really no reason for sellers to keep holding down Harmonic here.

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