Based on the aggregated intelligence of 110,000 investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, data storage specialist EMC (NYSE:EMC) has earned a coveted five-star ranking. Our data has shown that five-star stocks outperform the market by a significant margin; conversely, one-star stocks have woefully lagged the market average.

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

EMC facts

Headquarters (Founded) Hopkinton, Massachusetts (1979)

Market Cap

$29.13 billion

Industry

Computer Storage & Peripherals

TTM Revenue

$13.73 billion

Management

CEO Joseph Tucci (since 2001)

CFO David Goulden (since 2006)

Return on Equity (avg. last three years)

11.7%

CAPS members bullish on EMC also bullish on

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

CAPS members bearish on EMC also bearish on

Ford Motor (NYSE:F)

Citigroup (NYSE:C)

General Motors (NYSE:GM)

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

Over on CAPS, fully 641 of 659 of the All-Star members who have rated EMC -- some 97% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These All-Star bulls include gunark and falcon2382, both of whom are ranked in the top 10% of our community.

In February 2007, gunark noted that "Virtualization is the way of the future, and EMC is by far the leader here with its VMware division. In the next two to three years you will see the vast majority of data centers and in-house server farms switching to virtualization."

A more recent pitch from falcon2382 three months ago agreed with that positive sentiment, highlighting EMC as a particularly timely opportunity:

I don't think there's ever been a better time to buy the master of storage. Recession or no recession, we are not in the beginning stages of a tech boom where companies bought storage because it offered them POTENTIAL growth. We are now in a situation where companies DEPEND on storage capacity to stay alive. The cutting of costs for major companies during the past several years has put off technology spending (including storage) for too long. The viability of many companies (especially financial, pharma, energy, aerospace, and any other major tech realm) remains integrally connected to its information storage capacity.

What do you think about EMC, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 110,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.