5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: ViroPharma

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 120,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, drug maker ViroPharma (Nasdaq: VPHM) 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 ViroPharma's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

ViroPharma facts

Headquarters (founded)	Exton, Pennsylvania (1994)
Market Cap	$944.27 million
Industry	Biotechnology
TTM Revenue	$230 million
Management	CEO Vincent Milano CFO Charles Rowland
Return on Capital (average last three years)	14.8%
Competitors	Genzyme (Nasdaq: GENZ) Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX)
CAPS members bullish on VPHM also bullish on	Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) General Electric (NYSE: GE)
CAPS members bearish on VPHM also bearish on	JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO)

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

Over on CAPS, fully 1,124 of the 1,152 members who have rated ViroPharma -- some 98% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These Foolish bulls include ValueWithDale and zzlangerhans, both of whom are ranked in the top 25% of our community.

Late last month, ValueWithDale noted that ViroPharma is:

Generating soo much cash and on a PE of 8! Its a small cap so has a lot of room to grow, and is in the recession safe industry of healthcare. Baby boomers need healthcare too, so i could actually grow during a recession.

A pitch from zzlangerhans one week earlier agreed, detailing several of the stock's specific catalysts:

I'm a long-term Viropharm bull who recognizes ebb and flow in the market. The ebb has brought Viropharm down to a price I like, especially with the Lev acquisition and Cinryze approval on the immediate horizon. This may go down as the acquisition of the year, especially compared to dubious buyouts of Encysive and Sirtris. In the meantime, Akorn's efforts to get approval of generic vancomycin appear to be lost in space, so the 65M and rising quarterly Vancocin revenues appear to be safe for the time being.

What do you think about ViroPharma, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 120,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.