Drink In These 5 Top Stocks

• Email
• Share
• Print

Whether it's the corporate lunchroom, your cubicle, or the local watering hole after work, there are regular places we gather to discuss news, sports, or -- if you're like us -- stocks. Here at Motley Fool CAPS, we gather around the virtual water cooler daily to rate stocks and delve into their merits as investments.

Our 135,000-strong CAPS community -- where members give the thumbs-up or thumbs-down to some 5,300 stocks -- has earned its points by seeking out the businesses that it thinks will outperform the market. Below, we'll take a look at some of the stocks in the CAPS universe that you're talking about the most, and we'll see whether you think they'll continue their winning ways.

Stock	CAPS Rating (Out of 5)	No. of Calls	% Outperform Calls
ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT)	*****	1,570	97%
Ceragon Networks (Nasdaq: CRNT)	*****	1,593	98%
Mindray Medical (NYSE: MR)	*****	1,588	99%
Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU)	*****	1,512	96%
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN)	***	1,515	92%

A tall drink of water
Quite a few companies reporting earnings this season have sung a similar refrain: Revenues are falling hard, but profits -- because of cost-cutting measures -- are exceeding analyst expectations. Of course, whittling costs down is a short-term salve and can't be kept up indefinitely. 

Yet oil-sands developer Suncor Energy wasn't able to cut expenses enough to offset the slide in oil and natural-gas prices, and even ignoring one-time items, earnings came below analyst estimates. Nevertheless, its oil-sands cash operating costs averaged $31.30 a barrel, down from more than $50 last year, as lower natural-gas inputs and greater production improved the situation. For the year, the company expects those operating costs to come in between $33 and $38 per barrel. In addition, Suncor's acquisition of Petro-Canada (NYSE: PCZ) was approved by Canada's Competition Bureau, making it the largest energy producer north of the border come Aug. 1, when the deal is consummated. With the price of oil rising again, this bodes well for the oil-sands developer.

Last month, CAPS member jreynolds976 noted that Suncor has been tearing through cash lately: "This is a good company but they are currently overstretched and have burned up tons of capital in a series of acquisitions. This will be a good stock to play after the company refreshes its capital but for now it is too anemic and vulnerable to market jitters and shorting."

Texas Instruments was another of those companies reporting significantly lower revenue but handily beating expectations. While the chipmaker's revenue fell 27% year over year and profit plummeted by 55%, the adjusted earnings of $0.25 per share were well ahead of the consensus view of just $0.19 a stub.

As with the modestly improved outlook that Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) shared with the market, Texas Instruments said that demand, while soft, is slowly firming as customers restock depleted inventories. Earlier this year, CAPS member Jayhawker2000 noted that mobile communications would help TI: "Demand for their processors used in mobile devises will not decline any time soon as mobile platforms replace PCs."

While the chip industry might be coalescing around the idea of improving fortunes, the steel industry seems to remain split over whether demand is hardening or is still just so much slag. The result, it seems, depends on where you look. U.S. conditions point to continued weak end-user demand, and that looks to be the case in much of Europe as well. With China and the rest of Asia seeing case-hardened growth, that's where investors should shop if they're looking to profit from a steel recovery. That means ArcelorMittal, which has most of its assets in the U.S and Europe and generates most of its revenue in those areas, is unlikely to enjoy whatever boost might be in store in the immediate future.

Gather 'round
Getting your information from the CAPS community is like trying to take a sip from a fire hose. With so many good opinions about today's top companies, why not grab a pointy paper cup from the dispenser and join us at the Motley Fool CAPS water cooler, where your input can help guide other investors to stocks with bright prospects for growth? Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made -- all from a stock's CAPS page.

Sign up today for the completely free service, and let's hear what you have to say about the great -- and almost great -- companies that interest you.