Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, open source software specialist Red Hat
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Red Hat's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Red Hat facts
| Headquarters (founded) | Raleigh, N.C. (1993) |
| Market Cap | $11.6 billion |
| Industry | Systems software |
| Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $1.1 billion |
| Management | CEO James Whitehurst (since 2008) CFO Charles Peters Jr. (since 2004) |
| Return on Equity (average, past 3 years) | 9.2% |
| Cash/Debt | $808.3 million / $0 |
| Competitors |
Microsoft Novell Oracle |
Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 18% of the 742 members who have rated Red Hat believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.
A few weeks ago, one of those Fools, All-Star BuffettJunior1, succinctly summed up the bear case for our community:
Red Hat makes money giving away free software. The company has no economic moat, which means increased competition will threaten its impressive growth. Considering the ridiculous valuation on this stock I think some investors will lose a lot of money in the long run.
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Want to see how well (or not so well) the stocks in this series are performing? Follow the TrackPoisedTo CAPS account.
