Are you really a growth investor?

It's a question worth asking. Fast-moving tech stocks have taken a beating recently, leading to a slew of bargains for those with the guts to buy. Just ask investors who hold shares of Rule Breakers recommendation iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT), which yesterday fell more than 11% on no news whatsoever. Sheesh.

No matter. All-star investors bet on growth over the very long term. They know that:

  1. Businesses that make investors billions always begin as growth stocks.
  2. The best of them feature massive and identifiable competitive advantages.
  3. Growth as a strategy has the capacity to deliver 20% or greater annual returns for decades at a time. 

How we do it
Of course, not all growth stocks will do. Our weekly hunt seeks the next great multibagger. But unlike the Rule Breakers team, which scours everything from financial statements to trade magazines to clinical reports in their research, we're going to rely on our Motley Fool CAPS investor-intelligence database.

Specifically, we're looking for stocks that have earned a four or five-star rating in CAPS, and which are expected to grow their earnings by at least 20% annually over the next five years. Four and five-star stocks are those that the community, on the whole, believes will outperform the S&P 500.

Let's have the list
Now, with that preamble behind us, here are five more top growth stocks:

Company

No. of CAPS Ratings

Percent Bulls

5-Year Growth Estimate

Omniture (NASDAQ:OMTR)

1,426

97.1%

37.3%

Accuray (NASDAQ:ARAY)

426

95.5%

28.2%

Cogo Group (NASDAQ:COGO)

638

96.4%

25.0%

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR)

391

97.4%

21.3%

American Ecology (NASDAQ:ECOL)

399

96.7%

20.0%

Sources: Motley Fool CAPS, Yahoo! Finance.

Bear in mind that this isn't a list of recommendations. Instead, I offer these stocks as candidates for further research.

We've got some interesting companies to work with. Robot surgeon Accuray, like clean-up expert American Ecology, is on the upswing in CAPS land, even as peer Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) is hitting low notes. Energy explorer Murphy Oil took a hike over the summer. And Cogo Group is profitable and trading for near cash.

Ogling Omniture
My favorite, however, is Stock Advisor selection Omniture, a maker of tools for measuring Web performance. Here's how CAPS investor vprtwatcher explained the thesis in October:

Recurring business model trading at low revenue multiple with 50% organic growth and prospect for huge (non-GAAP) profit margin as the customer base grows. Recognised leader in web optimisation, benefiting from long term trend towards commerce moving online. [Emphasis added.]

And in more ways than you think. Baby Breaker Twitter, for example, has helped Dell to sell $500,000 worth of refurbished computers.

To be fair, Omniture isn't helping Twitter to sell anything; Twitter is a rebellious media platform. But isn't it amazing how a finely tuned Web presence creates massive moneymaking opportunities? It certainly can't be a coincidence that Omniture has its own social media expert, Brian Watkins.

But the Web's sellers and marketers profit most from Omniture's services. Think of its wares as the tools for tuning an e-commerce engine. "Web analytics is fast becoming a core business intelligence and quality assurance tool for a growing number of businesses," Fool co-founder David Gardner wrote in his January re-recommendation. "Increasing demand will likely prove to be a long-term and durable trend, and Omniture has established the keystone position."

Agreed -- but that's my take. I'm more interested to know what you think. Would you buy Omniture at current prices? Let us know by signing up for CAPS today. It's 100% free to participate.

See you back here next week with five more top growth stocks. Fool on!