Growth stocks can ignite your portfolio, sending its value rocketing up, up, and away at an extraordinary pace. But we all know the dangers involved in this kind of investing -- play with fire, and you might get burned.

Ideally, we want to find stocks with exceptional growth potential and a little less risk. Finding companies that are already profitable and earning a solid return on equity can help. So can companies that are highly regarded by the Motley Fool CAPS investing community. Stocks earning the highest five-star rating from the community have beaten the market by 12%, annualized, over the first 20 months of tracking.

With that in mind, I used our CAPS screener to pick out some fast growers that are a bit less speculative. I searched for companies that have increased revenue by more than 35% annually over the past three years, but also had positive earnings per share and a return on equity greater than 15% over the last 12 months.

They also have:

  • A five-star CAPS rating.
  • A market cap greater than $100 million.

Company

Recent Price

3-Year Revenue Growth Rate

Return on Equity (TTM)

Cemex (NYSE:CX)

$20.65

41%

18.5%

Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ:CTSH)

$29.74

42.3%

22.7%

Dynamic Materials (NASDAQ:BOOM)

$30.03

37.5%

22.4%

McDermott International (NYSE:MDR)

$34.00

47%

43.3%

Taseko Mines (NYSE:TGB)

$2.64

76.2%

23.6%

Vale (NYSE:RIO)

$25.41

46.9%

33.2%

Vasco Data Security (NASDAQ:VDSI)

$13.25

37.7%

26.8%

Data provided by Motley Fool CAPS as of Aug. 19, 2008. TTM = trailing 12 months.

As always, a screen is only the first step in finding a winning investment. These companies have seen outstanding revenue growth over the past few years, but there's no guarantee they will continue those recent trends. Still, this list may be a good place to start.

Looking for more ideas? Eager to discuss these? Join our 115,000-plus-member Motley Fool CAPS investing community.