Stocks Everyone Says to Buy Now

Some stocks simply have such great potential that "everyone" knows they are a good buy today. Yeah, we wish.

If we had known beforehand that Sanderson Farms (NASDAQ:SAFM) was going to return nearly 300% over the past 10 years, we'd have mortgaged the house to the hilt. If we'd had the inside scoop that Hansen Natural was a 29,000% winner over the past decade, we'd have mortgaged your house, too!

In fact, if investing were so easy, we'd all be millionaires. It's easy to see after the fact which companies have been the winning investments. What we need is a way to know beforehand which companies will become the next Microsoft or Wal-Mart, growing tens of thousands of percent in value over the years. But there hasn't been a way.

Until now, that is.

More than 70,000 professional and novice investors have rated stocks on Motley Fool CAPS, and we can check in on their opinions about which stocks will beat the market and which will lose to it. While it's often a tug-of-war between the bulls and the bears, we've identified dozens of stocks that members of CAPS have unanimously chosen to outperform the market.

That's no small feat. Thousands upon thousands of companies have been rated, and convincing arguments can, and are, made on both sides. For example, Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation Unit Corp. (NYSE:UNT) is a top-rated stock, with nearly 1,200 CAPS investors rating the company. Yet while nearly all of them think the stock will beat the market, there are still half a dozen CAPS investors who don't.

So when you come across a stock that everyone thinks is going to outperform, you've got something special, and we as investors ought to take notice.

Here are a handful of those "obvious" investments.

As always, none of the companies on this list should be considered formal recommendations, but rather starting points for further research. What we've done is narrowed your workload by focusing on those companies CAPS investors are universally expecting to beat the market.

What a gas!
Engaging in the exploration, development, and production of its oil and gas reserves, GeoResources is an interesting company that seems to have suddenly developed a following on CAPS. Although it's been a public company for more than a decade, virtually all of the players rating this company began following it this month. Might it have something to do with GeoResources' recent acquisition, which analysts believe will be immediately accretive while effectively doubling the size of its reserves, production, revenue, and cash flow?

Shares in the company have soared nearly 60% over the past two months to the $9 level, but they still trade at about half the highs they reached about two years ago. With crude hitting $90 this week, the CAPS community seems to think there's plenty of gas left in this stock.

CAPS player PicoTrader is looking for a double in this stock over the next year, which would bring it back to its high point.

Under the radar stock! buying, here; production doubling stock should do the same in a years time.

That seems to be the factor behind samwaters88's top bull pitch for GeoResources.

Companies size/oil reserves literally doubled with accretive acquisition. Excellent management, stock should double.

While such oil and gas production companies can often resemble little more than penny-stock schemes at times, GeoResources was listed at No. 38 on Fortune's list of the 100 fastest-growing small businesses in 2007. Perhaps the CAPS community is taking the lead toward a new market favorite.

Let's hear from you
How about you? What's your take on these or other "obvious" winning investments? If you want to add your two cents, sign up to join the Motley Fool CAPS community, which is 100% free.