5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Barrett Business Services

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 125,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, employee management services provider Barrett Business Services (Nasdaq: BBSI) 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 woefully lag the market average.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Barrett's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Barrett facts

Headquarters (founded)	Vancouver, Wash. (1965)
Market Cap	$124.91 million
Industry	Human Resource and Employment Services
TTM Revenue	$297.67 million
Management	CEO William Sherertz (since 1980) CFO James Miller (since 2008)
Return on Equity (average, last three years)	13.7%
Dividend Yield	2.7%
Competitors	Manpower (NYSE: MAN), Automatic Data Processing (Nasdaq: ADP)
CAPS members bullish on BBSI also bullish on:	General Electric (NYSE: GE), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)
CAPS members bearish on BBSI also bearish on:	Centex (NYSE: CTX), D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI)

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

Over on CAPS, 98% of the 201 All-Star members who have rated Barrett believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include globallyfoolish and All-Star tenmiles.

In October, globallyfoolish described Barrett as a "soundly run services business that will ride out the downturn and reap benefits when the US market turns around. Still paying a dividend among the doldrums."

In a pitch from two weeks ago, tenmiles agrees, citing Barrett's attractive business model as reason to remain patient:

Barrett looks cheap in here for patient types. Debt free grower with roughly 40% of current market cap in cash. Stock buyback in place, along with decent (3%) dividend. Primary business(85%) is professional employer organization (PEO) contracts - analysts have noted this is a better business than traditional staffing-higher margins and better client retention. Long term survivor trading like pure, depressed staffing play...

What do you think about Barrett Business Services, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 125,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.